The Hindu : Front Page : Court frees Algerian man

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Wednesday, Jun 24, 2009
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Court frees Algerian man

K. Manikandan

— Photo: A. Muralitharan

FREE MAN: Saleem Abbasi at the court complex in Tambaram on Tuesday.

TAMBARAM: Saleem Abbasi, the 42-year-old Algeria-born man with a Qatar passport, who spent four days in the Puzhal prison, was set free by a court here on Tuesday evening after the police submitted that they were not pressing charges against him or asking for an extension of his remand. Mr. Abbasi had reached Chennai from Kuala Lumpur on the night of June 18. He was detained by the airport authorities as his name figured in a “red corner notice” issued by Interpol.

Police sources said a case under Section 41 (1) (g) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (arrest on the grounds of reasonable suspicion) was registered and Mr. Abbasi was lodged in prison.

On Monday, the Assistant Director of Interpol, New Delhi, sent an urgent communication through the National Central Bureau of the Central Bureau of Investigation to C. Mugilan, Inspector of Police, Chennai Airport, with a copy to S.N. Seshasai, Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Crime Branch CID, asking for the release of Mr. Abbasi.

The letter, a copy of which was distributed to reporters at the Tambaram court by V. Kannadasan, Special Public Prosecutor (Human Rights Cases), said a communication from Interpol in Algiers had informed their counterparts in New Delhi that the “arrest has been cancelled by the competent Algerian judicial authorities and we ask you to inform the competent Indian judicial authorities that their Algerian counterparts do not intend to extradite the subject from India. In view of the above, it is requested to take appropriate steps immediately for the release of the subject from judicial custody.”

Police said following the communication, they did not press for the extension of Mr. Abbasi’s remand.

Judicial Magistrate P. Saravanan let Mr. Abbasi free. A visibly relieved Mr. Abbasi said he was “happy” over the developments but did not want to talk more on whatever had happened over the past few days.

Mr. Kannadasan and policemen told reporters that during the course of their conversations with Mr. Abbasi, they had learnt that his father Abbasi Madani was jailed for 12 years following his alleged involvement in bomb blasts at the Houari Boumedienne Airport in Algiers in 1992.

Mr. Abbasi, they said, had told them his father’s detention was politically motivated.

Mr. Abbasi is chairman of the board of directors of Qatar Energo Solar, a company that manufactures photovoltaic cells. He was on his way to Bangalore on an invitation from the Karnataka government that organised an event to showcase developments with respect to alternative energy sources.

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