Kerala: Son in UAE jail for spying for India, mother may have to wait till 2025 to see him
Kochi: Shahubanath Beevi, mother of Shihani Meera Sahib Jamal Mohammed, may have to wait till 2025 to see her son -- presently serving a 10- year jail term in a prison there since 2015 for allegedly spying for the Indian government -- after the Centre told the Kerala High Court that its Embassy there has done all it can.
Her son was awarded a 10-year jail term in August 2015 and the sentence was upheld by the Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal and therefore, he would be released in September 2025 and then deported back to India, the Centre has told the high court.
The Centre has said that the Indian Embassy in UAE had requested the local authorities to consider the case sympathetically and pardon the sentence of Mohammed, but being a case related to that country's national security they declined to grant any such relief.
As there was nothing more the Embassy could do, it had updated the same on the MADAD portal and recommended that it be closed, the Centre has said.
The central government has also told the court that the emails sent to the Embassy for filing a mercy petition on behalf of Mohammed have been forwarded to the concerned local authorities for their sympathetic consideration.
The submissions by the Centre were made in a statement filed in the court in response to Shahubanath Beevi's plea, filed through advocate Jose Abraham, seeking legal support for her son.
The woman has claimed that her son has been subjected to "severe torture and harassment" and he did not get any kind of support from the Indian Embassy there or the central government.
Refuting the allegation, the Centre has said that when the Embassy came to know of her son's arrest in 2015, it had sent an official communication in September 2015 to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of UAE for an investigation into the matter and seeking the reasons for the arrest and consular access to Mohammed.
As no response was received, the Embassy had in January 2016 sent a reminder, the Centre has claimed and added that in March 2017 consular access to Mohammed was obtained and an official had visited him in the prison.
In view of the above facts, the Centre has urged the court to close the petition.
The matter was taken up on Monday, but as the UAE Embassy here has not been impleaded, the court listed it for hearing on December 9.
The woman, in her plea, has claimed that according to the judgements passed by the UAE courts in the matter, her son was "acting for the Indian Embassy officials in UAE".
The woman has alleged that her son was not even provided proper legal aid to defend himself in the courts there.
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Duleep Trophy: Pacers shine as India B beat India A by 76 runs
Bengaluru, Sep 8: KL Rahul's gumption, which helped him pile a patient fifty, found no resonance among his colleagues as India B pacers led by Yash Dayal pushed India A to a 76-run defeat on the fourth and final day of their Duleep Trophy match here on Sunday.
Chasing 275, India A were bundled out for 198 in their second innings as left-arm seamer Dayal (3/50), with able support from his colleagues Mukesh Kumar (2/50) and Navdeep Saini (2/41), led the India B attack.
Rahul top-scored for 'A' with a 51.
In the first session of the day, India B made 184 all out in their second essay to muster a handy overall lead of 274.
The India A chase began on a shaky note as Mayank Agarwal departed in the second over itself, wafting Dayal away from his body to Nitish Kumar Reddy, who made a wonderful diving catch at second slip.
That brought Riyan Parag to the middle and the right-hander followed the path set on Saturday by Rishabh Pant and Sarfaraz Khan.
Parag took on the bowlers and pacer Mukesh bore the brunt of his aggression, getting smoked for two sixes and the second maximum touched the roof of the Chinnaswamy Stadium over the mid-wicket region.
Parag added 48 runs for the second with a rather subdued Shubman Gill, who was dropped by Nitish Reddy at slips off Mukesh on 16, and 31 came off the former's bat in just 18 balls.
But the approach was tough to sustain considering the kind of assistance the bowlers were getting here, and soon his massive hoick off Dayal took an edge off Parag's bat en route to stumper Rishabh Pant.
Gill (21) departed soon, falling to Saini for the second time in the match and on this occasion, he edged the pacer to Pant.
Dhruv Jurel poked Dayal well outside off-stump to Yashasvi Jaiswal at gully, as India batters perished to a combination of bowlers' persistence on that channel and their own carelessness.
They took the lunch at a queasy 76 for four that soon transpired into 99 for six after the dismissal of Shivam Dube and Tanush Kotian, an hour into the lunch.
However, Rahul batted out 180 minutes 121 balls and milked 42 runs for the seventh wicket with Kuldeep Yadav to delay the inevitable.
The standout shot in an otherwise dour innings was a whistling on drive off Mukesh that fetched him a boundary.
But Mukesh had his revenge soon when Rahul feathered a cut off him to Pant, who completed five catches in this innings, soon after reaching his fifty with a single off Saini.
It effectively signalled the end of the road of for India A, though Akash Deep (43, 42b, 3x4, 4x6) gave a few moments of fun with a cavalier innings.
But beyond the entertainment value, it always was a case of when more than if.
Earlier, resuming from their overnight score of 150 for six India B could only 34 runs more to the total before getting bundled out.
Pacer Akash, whom Sarfaraz Khan carted around for five fours in a row the previous day, found his mojo to add the scalps of Washington Sundar and Saini to complete a five-wicket haul (5/56).
The spell will keep his name floating among the contenders when the selectors sit together soon to pick up squad for two-match Test series against Bangladesh.
