PUNE, India, 13 January 2008 — The deportation of convicted Pakistani spy Saeed Ahmed Desai faces further delay after Pune Police Commissioner Jayant Umranikar said recently that he has no authority to deport Desai.
Desai, who was convicted of spying for Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), was admitted to a government hospital last week after he went on a hunger strike demanding early deportation to Pakistan. Umranikar yesterday submitted a revision application to the Pune district and session court pleading to set aside the order passed by the trial court directing him to depot Desai. In his plea, Umranikar said that the court cannot issue direction to him to deport the spy as it was in gross violation of the Foreigners Act. The order of the lower court passed Oct. 4 should be set aside, Umranikar said in his application.
The city police chief said that he was dissatisfied with the order of Chief Judicial Magistrate Y. Chawre and contested the judge’s authority to direct him to make arrangements for the deportation. “The order of the judge is not legal and proper as per the provision of the law and rules and the judge has erred in not considering the provisions of the Passport Act, Foreigners Act, and the Citizen Act,” Umranikar argued in the application.
He said the deportation of an person is an exclusive purview of the federal government under Section 3 of the Foreigners Act 1946, and no civil, judicial or executive department of a state government has any authority in respect of that.
