Music director Nadeem Akhtar Saifee moved the Bombay High Court through his father seeking cancellation of non-bailable warrants and red corner notices issued against him.
MUMBAI: London-based music director Nadeem Akhtar Saifee, absconding after being accused of involvement in the murder of Gulshan Kumar, has moved the Bombay High Court through his father, to seek the withdrawal of non-bailable warrants and red corner notices issued against him in 1997.
The petition, filed by his Mumbai-based father Yunus Saifee, is likely to come up for hearing before a division bench on December 20. Criminal lawyers Majeed Memon and Ashok Mundargi will argue Nadeem's case, sources said.
The warrants and red corner notices were issued in September 1997 after the Indian government initiated extradition proceedings against Nadeem in Britain.
The petition prayed that though British courts had rejected the Indian government's extradition proceedings, the warrants and red corner notices issued by Interpol had hindered Nadeem's movement as he cannot travel outside Britain, where he has taken asylum since 1997.
The petition said Nadeem feared that if he traveled outside Britain, he could be arrested or detained and a second innings of extradition against the principles of double jeopardy could be held against him.
It was prayed that Nadeem had been tried once for extradition proceedings in respect of the murder of music magnate Gulshan Kumar and any similar proceedings for the same offence would be against the principles of natural justice and double jeopardy.
Nadeem's father sought a direction from the court to the Central Bureau of Investigation to recall the red corner notices against Nadeem and to take steps to ensure that his name is deleted from the list of absconding accused with the Interpol.
The petition said Nadeem was in London when Gulshan Kumar was murdered on September 12, 1997. The then police commissioner and Maharashtra's then Home Minister Gopinath Munde, at press conferences, had alleged Nadeem was the prime conspirator. This was followed by the extradition suit filed by India in the House of Lords in Britain, which was rejected.
The petition enclosed the London court's order that had observed that the accusation of murder and conspiracy against Nadeem was not made in good faith or in the interest of justice. The judges had observed it would not be proper to return Nadeem to India because of "misbehaviour of police which have tainted the evidence so as to render a fair trial impossible".
The London court expressed unhappiness with the Indian authorities for not placing on record the retraction of a confession made by accused-turned-approver Mohammed Shaikh Ali, who allegedly had attended conspiracy meetings in Dubai with Nadeem.
A magistrate in Mumbai had refused to record Ali's confession as he feared for his life and his kin.
In the Indian court too, the petition said, all except one of the 19 accused who faced trial were acquitted of conspiracy charges as these could not be established.
The petition enclosed a copy of the trial court's verdict, which said the conspiracy theory -- that alleged Nadeem had hired gangster Abu Salem to kill Gulshan Kumar -- had failed.
Actor Chunkey Pandey had also not supported the prosecution, saying that he had seen Nadeem having a secret conversation with Abu Salem and the trial court had also observed that there was no evidence to establish that the approver and other accused had met Nadeem and absconding accused Qayoom in Dubai, the petition claimed.
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