SC refuses to direct Centre for Fasih Mohd's deportation

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to direct the Centre to get alleged Indian Mujahideen member Fasih Mohammed, detained by Saudi Arabia authority, extradited or deported to the country.

After going through all the correspondence between the Centre and the Saudi Arabia government, a bench of justices P Sathasivam and Ranjan Gogoi said it is for the Centre to pursue the case further as it cannot pass any direction for bringing him back.

"We are convinced on the basis of these correspondences that the government has taken steps. We cannot direct the Saudi Arbia government in this regard," the bench said.

Additional Solicitor General Gourav Banerjee informed the court that Bihar native Fasih Mohammed, alleged to be involved in several terror acts in the country, is in the custody of the Saudi Arabia police and the government is trying to get access to him through diplomatic channel. He also told the court that the government will take steps for his extradition or deportation.

The bench was hearing a petition filed by Fasih's wife Nikhat Parveen, who had alleged that her husband had been picked up by a joint team of the Indian and Saudi officials on May 13 for his purported terror links and his whereabouts were not known ever since then.

The court, after hearing government's contention, disposed of the case saying he has been tracked and it is for the government to pursue the case further.

Advocate Naushad Ahmad Khan, appearing for Parveen, pleaded with the court not to dispose of the case as Fasih would be released from jail in Saudi Arbia where he has been in detention for the last 104 days.

The Central Bureau of Investigation had earlier issued a red corner notice  for tracking Fasih, an engineering graduate from Bihar.

During an earlier hearing, the Ministry of External Affairs, the home ministry and the Delhi police had, in a joint response, rejected the allegation that Fasih Mohammed was abducted by the Indian police personnel for custodial interrogation.

The RCN issued against Fasih stated that the 30-year-old youth, a resident of Darbhanga district in Bihar, was a member of the Indian Mujahideen and responsible for the Pune German Bakery blast on February 13, 2010 besides the Bengaluru Chinnaswami Stadium blasts on April 17, 2010 and Delhi's Jama Masjid shootout and blast on September 19, 2010.

Fasih's involvement had come to light during interrogation of various other arrested suspects who disclosed his involvement in said offences, the notice stated.

The government has said sufficient evidence of his involvement in various has come on record and on the basis of the said evidence, the prosecution can be launched by the special cell of the Delhi police.

Twenty-two-year-old Parveen, who married Fasih in September last year and had joined him in Saudi Arabia in March this year, first contacted the Indian Embassy after Fasih was picked up by Saudi authorities there. Failing to get any information from there, she had returned to India on May 15.