In probably the first instance of a foreign court relying on a probe by an Indian agency, Qatar releases couple framed by relative in drug case
Shareeq and Oniba had been to Qatar for their second honeymoon in July 2019 when their world was upended
Ramzan couldn’t have begun on a happier note for the families of Mohammed Shareeq and his wife Oniba Qureshi. The couple spent nearly two years in Qatar in a drug case after they were trapped by a relative. Acquitted last week, they were expected to arrive in Mumbai on Wednesday night.
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Aayat, now one-and-a-half years old, was born in a Qatari jail
As per the Narcotics Control Bureau, this is perhaps the first instance of a foreign court relying on an investigation by an Indian agency. Speaking to mid-day from Doha airport, Shareeq said NCB officers came in as messiahs for them.
Mohammed Ali residents Mohammed Shareeq and his wife Oniba Qureshi, both 29, went to Qatar on July 6, 2019, for their second honeymoon which was sponsored by Shareeq’s aunt (sister of his father ).
After they landed at Hamad International Airport, Doha, anti-drug officers recovered 4.1 kg of hashish from their luggage. The two were sentenced to 10 years in jail apart from a fine of 3 lakh Riyals in November that year, marking a painful struggle for their families.
“I stayed in Qatar for 15 months to seek justice. My son explained that my own sister Tabassum forced him to go for the honeymoon and despite his refusal she booked tickets and gave him a bag which had the drug. She had told him that it has some zarda [tobacco] and someone would collect it from him at Doha airport,” Shareeq’s father Mohammed Sharif told mid-day.
“It was Allah’s miracle that the authorities gave us all his belongings. My son worked for a Korean firm and would keep his phone on auto recording mode. He told me the proof of his innocence was in his mobile. The recording showed he was refusing to go on the honeymoon. I hired a lawyer there and made dozens of trips between Doha and Mumbai to arrange for money for the expensive legal battle,” he said.
Meanwhile, Oniba’s father Shakeel Ahmed Qureshi filed a complaint with Rakesh Asthana, DG of NCB in September 2019 alleging that his daughter and son-in-law had been tricked by Shareeq’s aunt Tabassum Riyaz Qureshi and her associate Nizam Kara.
The NCB asked its Joint Director KPS Malhotra to probe the allegations. “After going through the papers and audio clips we found that the couple was tapped by a drug syndicate,” Malhotra told mid-day.
The NCB then took up the matter through diplomatic channels. “We found that a well organised syndicate was being run by Nizam Kara and Tabassum,” said Malhotra.
The Mumbai police chipped in with its own probe. It arrested Kara and Tabassum in December 2019 and seized 13 grams of cocaine from them. In February 2020, NCB confiscated 1.4 kg of charas in Chandigarh and arrested four persons working at the behest of Kara and his wife Shaheeda.
The NCB submitted a dossier of its and Mumbai police’s findings to the Indian Embassy which moved the Court of Cassation, the highest court in Qatar, in January this year. The top court accepted the couple’s argument and returned the case to the appeal court.
The lower court on March 29 cleared the couple of all charges and set them free. “This has never happened in the history of Qatar judicial system where a person convicted in a drug case has been acquitted based on the investigation carried out by an Indian agency,” said advocate Nizar Kochery who represented the couple in Qatar, adding, “This was next to impossible because Qatar has stringent laws against drugs.”
Malhotra too agreed that it was a difficult challenge. “When we took this case, everyone was saying this is impossible. This was one of the most satisfying investigations of my entire career and I owe this to my team and media who equally helped in raising the same,” he added.
Thanking the government and NCB, Sharif said, “I cannot explain the kind of pain I have gone through. First, my son and daughter-in-law were trapped by my own sister, then seeing them in a prison. What forced us to go through unimaginable trauma is when we heard that my Oniba delivered a baby girl in the prison.”
The couple’s baby was born on February 26 last year and they have named her Aayat Qureshi. “During these days my son never saw his daughter. Last Thursday he called me from the prison and cried a lot saying ‘papa mai afraaz hogaya’. He was later reunited with his wife and daughter by members of the Indian Embassy. If everything goes well they will land in Mumbai tonight,” he said.
Oniba’s mother Parveen Kausar said they are indebted to the government and NCB. “I was just dreaming to see my granddaughter one day and now this has become a reality.”
‘Holding baby for first time’
Speaking to mid-day from Doha airport, Shareeq said, “We have never thought that we will walk out of the prison but we had faith in God because we did nothing wrong. The NCB officers are like messiah for us, especially Malhotra sir and his team. After two years I am meeting my wife and holding my daughter for the first time.”
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