Thaindian News

New Delhi, March 19 (IANS) The Supreme Court was told Monday that Pakistani virologist Mohammad Khaleel Chishty, undergoing life term in Ajmer jail for murder, was back home after he was granted clemency by the government.

A bench of Justice P. Sathasivam and Justice J. Chelameswar was told that Chishty has been granted clemency and deported back to Pakistan. Chishty, 80, has been ailing for a long time and is suffering ischemic heart disease, and left ventricular failure. He also had a hip fracture.

Chishty had been on a visit to his family to Ajmer in 1992 when he got embroiled in a fight resulting in murder of his relative, Sayyed Idris Chishti, in the premises of the famous Dargah of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti.

On Feb 14, 1992, Chishty went to attend a wedding in the neighbourhood and got into an argument with his relative and some others. The same evening, a mob, including Idris, came to Chishti’s brother’s house and a scuffle broke out between the two groups.

According to the prosecution Chishty opened fire and killed Idris.

Chishty and four others were arrested in March 1992. He was, however, released on bail and shifted to his brother’s farmhouse at Hatundi, 12 km from Ajmer and kept under house arrest.

Film director Mahesh Bhatt, journalist Kuldip Nayar and former apex court judge and Press Council of India chairman Justice Markandey Katju had been pleading with the government to release Chishty on humanitarian grounds.

Justice Katju had written to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi for his release.

An appeal for clemency was made on his behalf to the Rajasthan governor under the provisions of Articles 161 of the Constitution.