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New Delhi: In reduction to a Mumbai couple convicted for ten years in a drug trafficking case in Qatar, the very best Qatari court docket has put aside the conviction and ordered a “evaluation of the case”.
Mohammad Shareeq and Oniba Qureshi had been arrested in 2019 from the Hamad Worldwide Airport in Doha for carrying 4.1 kg of cannabis of their baggage. The couple was convicted for the offense and has since been in jail. Qureshi even delivered a daughter inside jail.
Nevertheless, based on the couple, it had gone to Qatar for a “second honeymoon” — a visit sponsored by Shareeq’s paternal aunt Tabassum Riyaz Qureshi. She allegedly gave the couple a drug packet, falsely claiming it contained tobacco to be delivered to a good friend in Qatar.
Since their conviction in 2019, Shareeq and Oniba’s households had been operating pillar to publish for reduction.
In its order Wednesday, the Courtroom of Cassation famous the decision of the attraction court docket, equal to a excessive court docket, was “faulty and price for problem” because it didn’t consider the protection.
“The decision hasn’t replied for the protection supported with the paperwork as they hadn’t prison intent as they weren’t figuring out that the captured issues as narcotics and so they have been cheated by considered one of their relations. This makes the decision faulty and price for problem (sic),” mentioned the order, which was initially in Arabic and translated by the Narcotics Management Bureau (NCB) in India. ThePrint has accessed a replica of the order.
The court docket returned the case to the attraction court docket for a evaluation, the place will probably be scrutinised below a brand new bench.
Talking to ThePrint, the couple’s lawyer Nizar Kochery mentioned the case will now be heard once more by the attraction court docket and he expects full reduction.
“Once we moved the Courtroom of Cassation to show the couple’s innocence, we put a sequence of paperwork earlier than the choose which included the investigation finished by the NCB in India exhibiting how their aunt Tabassum was concerned in a drug racket. Additionally, we had letters from the Indian authorities. The court docket thought of our case and has now despatched it again for evaluation to Attraction court docket,” he mentioned.
Additionally learn: Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad arrests Dawood aide Chinku Pathan in medication probe
‘Grateful to NCB, ministries’
Mohammad Shareeq’s father, Abdul Qayyum, who runs a resort in Mumbai, is now hopeful of seeing his son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter again house.
“It has been a particularly powerful final one yr since they have been sentenced. My daughter-in-law gave delivery to her first youngster contained in the jail, with none fault of hers. My youngsters have been trapped due to which they’ve suffered rather a lot,” he mentioned.
“I’m hoping that after this reduction by the SC of Qatar, the Excessive Courtroom can even give a judgment in our favour and they are going to be launched from jail,” he added.
Qayyum mentioned he was grateful for the help from the NCB and two ministries — Ministry of Exterior Affairs and Ministry of House Affairs.
“They supported me all through. The NCB chief Mr Rakesh Asthana personally met the ambassador of India in Qatar and gave him the required paperwork. The house secretary additionally wrote to the authorities there. The MEA too helped by way of their diplomatic channels simply to make sure that our case is heard. We had additionally approached the Prime Minister’s Workplace,” he mentioned.
“Within the paperwork with the court docket, we have now hooked up all of the chats of the couple’s aunt, who had gifted them the journey, which exhibits that it was due to her malicious intent that they’re caught in jail in Qatar,” he mentioned.
Oniba’s father, Shakeel Ahmed Qureshi, had additionally filed a grievance with NCB towards Tabassum and her affiliate Nizam Kara, on 27 September 2019. The NCB had then arrested six folks for allegedly operating a drug trafficking syndicate.
Qayyum was in Qatar for over 15 months throughout the trial. “I spent over 15 months in Qatar. After the sentence within the attraction court docket, we moved the upper court docket. It was a harrowing time however this has introduced a ray of hope, I simply hope my youngsters return house quickly,” he mentioned.
The couple had married in Might 2018 and gone to Bangkok for his or her honeymoon. Whereas Shareeq labored as an administrative guide with a Japanese monetary expertise agency, Oniba give up her managerial job with a non-public agency in Mumbai after marriage.
Additionally learn: Heroin price Rs 1,000 cr, mid-sea ops — how NCB unearthed Pakistan, Sri Lanka-based syndicate
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