A man arrested for entering India illegally but given interim bail last week by a court here to get documents to prove his innocence, on Monday failed to turn up before the court with his counsel saying he was not aware of his whereabouts.
Imran, who is accused of cheating and illegally entering India from Pakistan, had submitted documentary evidence in the court to support his claim that he was a Gujarat native who went to Pakistan 25 years ago to set up a business but had returned to India in 2009-10 for good.
The documents were put up for consideration on Monday but Imran’s absence was conspicuous. Imran was given an interim bail for two weeks by chief metropolitan magistrate Vinod Yadav on March 20 considering “he could be a victim of circumstances” after he and his parents narrated their story of having been allegedly framed by the police in a false case.
On March 22, he had submitted copies of his Pakistani passport, Indian visa and regular residential permit issued to him by the home ministry through Gujarat government, which showed he had stayed in India from 2009 to 2011.
The documents were put up for consideration for Monday but Imran failed to appear in the court. When the judge inquired about him from the counsel who had volunteered to represent him, the advocate said he is not in touch with him and that he might be busy arranging documents to prove his case. Imran is to surrender before the court on April 4.
Imran was arrested last year along with his wife Soofia, by the special cell on charges of spying for Pakistan. However, the chargesheet filed against them spoke only of the offences of cheating under the Indian Penal Code and for Foreigners Act for illegally entering India.Police had claimed Imran and Soofia were pushed into India from ISI’s launch pads in Nepal to attack Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and other terror targets in the state.
While pleading for an interim bail, Imran had told the court he was a native of Ahmedabad in Gujarat and had left India 25 years ago and established a textile business in Pakistan.
He said, when his business was hit by recession in 2008, he decided to come back to India only to be arrested by police and tagged a “terrorist”.