Illegal detention of Pakistani national Sajid Bashir in Jaipur
jail questioned by the Rajasthan
high court, Jaipur bench.
Court orders for list of all foreign nationals languishing in
Rajasthan jails.
In a significant order passed by the Rajasthan high court on
September 30, 2005, the Jaipur bench directed the state of Rajasthan to provide
a complete list of all foreign nationals who have served their sentence and are
languishing in the various jails in Rajasthan along with the reasons why they
have not been repatriated.
The order was issued by a division bench of the Rajasthan high
court presided by Justice VK Bali and Justice RS Chauhan in a habeas corpus
petition filed by the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) praying
repatriation of Pakistani journalist Sajid Bashir. The court flayed the Union of
India standing counsel Kamlakar Sharma for the curtailment of Bashir’s liberty
by his continued detention in jail even after he had served the full sentence.
They stated that the right of liberty, even of foreign nationals, could not be
curtailed.
The court directed the Union of India and the state of Rajasthan
to provide cogent reasons for the continued detention of Sajid Bashir. It hoped
that by the next hearing Bashir would be repatriated. The court also granted
permission to the PUCL to meet Sajid Bashir.
The lawyer for PUCL was Ajay Kumar Jain. The next hearing has
been slated for October 18 after the autumn break during which courts will be
closed.
The court lashed out at advocate general BP Agarwal,
representing the state of Rajasthan, for not producing any document to validate
their claim that the Pakistan government had been informed about Bashir’s
detention in Jaipur’s Central Jail.
Twenty-two-year-old Pakistani national, Bashir of Bahawal Nagar
was booked by the Rajasthan police for violating the Official Secrets Act in
1991. He was arrested at the Nachna Border (Jaisalmer). Bashir’s version of his
entry into India was that it was accidental while hunting deer, which was a
passion with him then. Since there was no fencing on the border he did not know
that he had crossed the border.
After a protracted trial that lasted 10 years he was sentenced
for 12 years by the trial court in Jaipur in 2001. Having completed his sentence
in 2003, instead of being repatriated back to his country, he was illegally
detained in the Jaipur Central Jail. Bashir brought this matter to the notice of
the media and the Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar published a feature article
on August 14, 2005. This was followed by an editorial page article by popular
columnist Kamleshwar highlighting the human rights violation that Bashir was
being subjected to.
On September 28, the PUCL moved a habeas corpus petition in the
Rajasthan high court after it was denied permission to meet Bashir or to provide
him access to a lawyer for his power of attorney.
The matter came up first on September 29 when the court asked
that Bashir be produced in court the next day.
Today Bashir is 37 years old. He has spent 15 years in jail.
Talking to PUCL representatives, Bashir said that for three years prior to his
arrest he had worked as a journalist in Pakistan. Even today he sees his
identity as that of a media person. Having picked up the Devnagri script, he has
been a voracious reader of several newspapers that were provided to him in jail.
However, he missed not being given permission to watch TV. Having spent a large
chunk of his life behind bars, Bashir’s mission now is to try and stop ordinary
Indian and Pakistani citizens from being caught in the political crossfire
between the two nations, used as tools by their governments. Publicly
reiterating his faith in the Indian judiciary, he feels certain that with the
Rajasthan high court’s intervention he should be home very soon.
Bashir drew the PUCL’s attention to other Pakistanis in
Rajasthan jails and hoped that the latter would make similar interventions in
their cases too.
