New Delhi: A man and his Pakistani wife,
accused of illegally entering India, were on Monday granted
regular bail by a Delhi court to prove their intention of
permanently settling in this country by following due process
of law.
Imran and his wife Soofia, arrested last year by the
Special Cell of Delhi on the charge of being a Pakistani spy
but chargesheeted for illegally entering India, were granted
the bail by Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vinod Yadav on the
condition that they will make "sincere endeavour to approach
appropriate authority to give effect to their intention to
permanently settle in India."
The court also directed them to make themselves available
before the court on every date of hearing.
They were granted bail on a personal bond of Rs 20,000
and one "Indian surety" of like amount, to which Imran's
parents, who reside in Ahmedabad, volunteered to be sureties.
However, their release from the judicial custody would
not come into effect till April 13 by when the court has
directed the authorities concerned to verify the residential
address of Imran's parents.
Pending verification, Imran was taken into judicial
custody as his interim bail expired today.
The court noted in its order that "initially as projected
in the print media, both the accused persons (Imran and
Soofia) were branded as terrorists wo had come to India with a
Jihadi mission. But on completion of probe, there was nothing
in the chargesheet for any such activity."
The judge also noted that the duo did not want to plead
guilty and to be deported to Pakistan as they submitted the
"media there has given wide publicity and they would be
branded as Indian spies and apprehended."
He also accepted their counsel Nitin Ahlawat's argument
that they be released on bail to pursue their case and
approach the authorities concerned to settle permanently in
India.
The matter has now been put up for consideration on April
23.
Imran's counsel contended "there is no law that
discriminates between a foreign and an Indian national in
matters of bail."
Imran said his parents are permanent residents of
Ahmedabad in Gujarat and there is no chance of his fleeing the
counrty as is evident fro his conduct during his interim bail.
Soofia, in her plea for regular bail, said the case
against her smacks of "vengeance" and "malice".
In the light of her previous argument that she and Imran
were "victim of circumstances", Soofia had said she
"undertakes to be more carfeul in the future."
Imran was earlier given interim bail to enable him to
prove to the court with relevant documents that he was born in
Gujarat and had gone to Pakistan in 1980s.
He had been claiming that he had come to India with the
intention to settle permanently with his family after his
business in Pakistan crashed due to 2008 economic slowdown.
The police had claimed Imran and Soofia were pushed into
India from ISI's launch pads in Nepal to attack Gujarat Chief
Minister Narendra Modi and other terror targets in the state.
PTI
First Published: Monday, April 09, 2012, 19:41