Thaindian News

Bangalore, Aug 29 (IANS) Indian doctor Muhammad Haneef, against whom the Australian police finally dropped a terror probe Friday, has taken up a job in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has been there for nearly a month now, his family members said here.”We are happy to hear that the Australian police have finally dropped the charges against him.” said Bisma Ahmad, Haneef’s sister-in-law.

“Haneef, wife Firdous and daughter Haniya are all in the UAE,” she said, declining to specify where in the UAE the family was.

“I do not know the details,” Bisma said when asked in which hospital Haneef was working and whether he was in Dubai.

The Australian Federal Police dropped investigations in the botched up terror case against Haneef Friday.

Haneef, now 28, was incarcerated in Australia for three weeks last July after being charged with supporting a terrorist organisation by “recklessly” giving his mobile phone SIM card to people planning bomb attacks in London and Glasgow.

The charges were later dropped and Haneef, who was a registrar at the Gold Coast hospital in Queensland, returned to his family in Bangalore July 29 last year.

The police investigation has cost a whopping A$7.5 million to taxpayers for a case that strained India-Australia bilateral relations, caused the 240,000-strong Indian Australian community much grief and earned Australia and the former John Howard government bad press not only at home and in India, but across the world.