India has bilateral agreements with the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain on criminal matters, which allows India to prosecute a person locally if the act committed by him/her is considered an offence under laws of both contracting states.
New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed four separate cases to investigate heinous crimes, including three murders, committed by Indians in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
The ‘local prosecution’ for the Indians, who absconded from these countries after committing the crimes there, has been launched on the request of respective governments.
India has bilateral agreements with the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain on criminal matters, which allows India to prosecute a person locally if the act committed by him/her is considered an offence under laws of both contracting states. The CBI has been designated as an authority to locally prosecute such offences committed in these countries.
In the first case registered by CBI on Friday, the probe agency has named one Mohammad Dilshad, a resident of Bijnaur (Uttar Pradesh), who allegedly committed a murder in Alsali district in Saudi Arabia on November 12, 1999. A request for Dilshad’s local prosecution was received from the Attorney General of Saudi Arabia through the ministry of external affairs (MEA).
According to the CBI first information report, Aziziah police station in Saudi Arabia received information from a security patrol that Abdullah Muhammad Saleh, a Saudi national, reported an unpleasant odour from the water tank of the warehouse of his establishment in Alsali district. The body of an unidentified Asian male, in his 30s, was found from the tank and information indicated that Dilshad, who by then had escaped from the country, was involved. An in-absentia arrest warrant was issued against him by Saudi authorities.
Based on Saudi Arabia’s request, the CBI has invoked section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code in its case.
Similarly, a murder case has been filed against one Subhash Chanar Mahla of Sikar, Rajasthan, for killing a Bahrain national – Mohammad Sultan Al-Motawa, on January 31, 2011. Mahla was sentenced to life imprisonment by the high court of appeal in Bahrain in absentia after which action was sought from India.
The third murder case has been filed on the request of UAE against one Sattar Khan, who holds the passport of the Islamic nation, for killing a woman on November 14, 2013 and fleeing to India.