NEW DELHI: The Indian Supreme Court has granted interim bail to 80-year-old Pakistani microbiologist Khalil Chishti during the pendency of his appeal against the Rajasthan High Court order upholding his conviction in a murder case.
Dr Chishti had applied for bail on the ground that he was 80 years old and had already been in prison for the last 20 years.Dr Chishti pleaded before the court that he be allowed to return to his home town Karachi or be allowed to live in New Delhi because of vitiated family atmosphere in Ajmer.
The Supreme Court asked him to surrender his passport and allowed him to file a fresh application. The court has asked Dr Chisti to remain in Ajmer till further orders.
In June last year, Indian Supreme Court Justice Markandeya Katju had requested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to release Dr Chishti on humanitarian grounds. Acting on Justice Katju’s appeal, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot approved his mercy plea and sent it to Governor Shivraj Patil for final clearance.
The Pakistani doctor was given a life term on January 31, 2011 by a trial court for a murder in Ajmer in 1992. The doctor, born in Ajmer to a prosperous family of caretakers of the Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti shrine, was studying in Pakistan at the time of Partition in 1947.
He didn’t return to his family in Ajmer till he came to visit his ailing mother in 1992. Chishti allegedly killed a man after a fight over some dispute.
According to sources, the issue of Khalil Chisti figured during the lunch hosted by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for President Asif Zardari. It was learnt that Interior Minister Rehman Malik referred to the issue during his interaction with Home Minister P Chidambaram.
