Convicted Indian national moves PHC for visitation rights

PESHAWAR: A convicted Indian national Hamid Nehal Ansari on Tuesday filed a writ petition in the Peshawar High Court (PHC) seeking benefit of Section 382-B of the Criminal Procedure Code to count his detention in the conviction and visitation right with the family members.

Nehal Ansari was convicted by a military court on December 14, last year in Kohat on spying charges. He was then shifted to Peshawar Central Prison. The convict has a right to appeal under the Pakistan Army Act.

The Indian prisoner filed the petition through his lawyer Qazi Muhammad Anwar, in which he requested for giving him the benefit of Section 382-B of the CrPC to count his detention with the law-enforcing agencies for investigation since November 15, 2012.

Furthermore, the prisoners also requested to be shifted from the death cell to a side room with the hospital situated in the prison or with one or two prisoners in a wide room. He also requested in the petition to direct the Foreign Affairs Ministry to issue visa to his mother Fauzia Ansari and allow visitation right in the prison.

Also, the Indian prisoner seeks the high court direction to Kohat Police to return his articles taken at the time of arrest including his passport. In the petition, it was prayed also to direct the prison authorities to allow day-to-day meeting of his counsel for interviewing him for the case.

 Nehal Ansari, a 31-year-old MBA degree holder, was a teacher at the Mumbai Management College. His mother claimed he was in touch with some Pakistani friends who had suggested him to cross into Pakistan from Afghanistan without a visa. She claimed that he had befriended a Pakistani woman through social media and had gone to Pakistan to meet her.