'Pay Rs.2 lakh to man for illegal detention'

The Delhi High Court Thursday directed the centre and the Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir governments to compensate a man Rs.2 lakh for illegally detaining him.

The man who claims to be a Saudi national is lodged in the Tihar Jail in the national capital.

The Saudi government, however, says he was not a national of that country.

A division bench of Justice P.K. Bhasin and Justice Najmi Waziri ordered Rs.2 lakh will be given to the man and the three governments will equally foot the amount.

The moeny will be deposited in a fixed deposit account and the man can withdraw Rs.10,000 per month from it.

The court's direction came while hearing a case based on the letter sent by 32-year-old Sheikh Abdul Aziz, who was sent to jail by a Srinagar court in 2006 for failing to give a satisfactory reason for travelling in India without a valid passport and visa.

Aziz had come to Bangladesh, from where he entered India through Kolkata. He remained in Odisha for some time and reached Srinagar through Delhi.

He was apprehended July 27, 2005 in Srinagar. Later, he was sentenced to a year's imprisonment after being charged under the Foreigners Act.

While the Srinagar court directed the authorities to deport Aziz to his country within two months after his release, no efforts were made, he said in the plea.

Following the court order, Jammu and Kashmir government shifted Aziz to Delhi as the department concerned of the ministry of external affairs had to initiate the process for his deportation.

The Jammu and Kashmir government told the high court that the detention orders were passed for the safety of people as he was found under suspicious circumstances.

It said the state wanted him to be deported to the country of his origin and the central government was requested to take necessary steps but it did not even care to respond.

Thereafter, he has been in the Tihar Jail.