Allahabad HC Grants Bail To Three Asylum Seekers From Myanmar Booked For Contravention Of Foreigner's Act [Read Orders]

Vide three separate orders passed on Thursday Justice Jayant Banerji enlarged Furkaan Hussain alias Win Koko; Nauman Ali alias Soe Koko; and Mohammad Rizwan Khan alias Shine Koko on bail.

All three of them had submitted applications before the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, as asylum seekers. However, the applicants' names appearing on their Burma (Myanmar) passport bore different names.

In these circumstances, they were implicated for forgery and cheating under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471 of IPC and illegal stay under Section 14 of the Foreigners Act, 1946.

When their bail applications came up for hearing on Thursday, the High Court pulled up the Union of India for stalling the matter and seeking successive adjournments.

"Considering the lackadaisical manner in which the Union of India is prosecuting this application, this Court has no option but to hear and decide the application on the basis of the record available," the court said.

Noting that the Union of India was not in a position to dispute the fact that the names of the Applicants were aliases, the high court allowed their bail applications, subject to making a deposit of Rs.50,000 with the CJM concerned in lieu of surety and on furnishing a personal bond of the same amount.

The court has also asked them to surrender their passports and to not leave the limits the Shamli district of UP, without prior permission of the concerned trial court.

The Court added that its observations were confined to bail hearing and should not be construed to have any reflection on the ultimate merits of the case. The trial court has been directed to expedite the trial and to conclude the same preferably within twelve months, without granting unnecessary adjournments to either of the parties.

Read Orders