JOIN US"We met Governor Patil and he said he will go through the case file and seek details from the Rajasthan Chief Secretary. He assured us that he will sympathetically consider the case, but only after going through its details," Nayyar and Bhatt told reporters here later.
Both Nayyar and Bhatt said that Pakistani academic Dr Saiyyad Mohammad Khaleel Chishty, once an active Professor of Virology in Karachi, has been "suffering" since 1992.
"He had gone to Ajmer (Rajasthan) in 1992 to look after his ailing mother. A dispute with some neighbours took an unseemly turn and he was arrested under IPC Section 302, 307/37, 302/34 and 324/34 and was falsely implicated. The trial took almost 20 years when he was finally convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in January 2011," Bhatt and Nayyar said in their appeal to the Governor.
They also attached an appeal from Dr Chishty's daughter. Bhatt said that Chishty is over 80 years old and has suffered serious health problems including two strokes while in prison.
"He is now in the prison hospital. His family is concerned that he may not survive much longer in the jail condition and wishes to see him return home to spend last days of his life. On the day he was convicted two persons had to pick him up and carry him inside the jail in Ajmer," Bhatt said, adding they had also met Home Minister P Chidambaram recently and made an appeal to him as well.
Bhatt said that Chishty was out on bail for almost 18 years, but he never violated it and was always present whenever asked to report to the police or the courts.
"We told the Governor that India and Pakistan have been exchanging lists of prisoners held in each other's prisons and have been making good progress in their repatriation," Bhatt said and highlighted the case of Gopal Dass, an Indian citizen who had been languishing in Pakistani jails for 27 years and was released recently "on humanitarian grounds".
Nayyar on behalf of the petitioners said that though they are not aware of the legal position of the case, but they want Chishty's case be treated on humanitarian grounds.
"Though the Governor did not give any definite time frame to us, but he assured that it would take at least a month before he will be able to go through the case files....the Constitution of India gives the Governor powers under Article 161 to grant pardons, reprieves, respites or remissions of punishment, as well as the power to suspend, remit or commute the sentence of the people convicted. We have appealed to the Governor to exercise this power in the name of humanity, mercy and reciprocity to release Dr Chishty," Nayyar said.
Bhatt said that people both in India and Pakistan want better relations.
"It is time we should stop de-humanising each other. When the dialogue process between the two countries broke down post Mumbai terror attacks, it is the Civil society on both sides that has been working to ensure that humanitarian causes are taken up," Bhatt added.