PUNE, India, 25 January 2008 — Police are frantically looking for Sayed Ahmed Mohammed Desai after he failed to return to the local police station where he had been staying.
The convicted Pakistani spy has been demanding his deportation since his release from prison, but failing that he has been in a state of virtual detention in Pune, leashed to local authorities in unofficial parole-like conditions. On Wednesday, police said that Desai simply walked out of the station unnoticed.
“He cannot live like a beggar,” Pune’s Joint Commissioner of Police Rajendra Sonawane told Arab News yesterday. “The possibility of some one giving him a shelter cannot be ruled out.”
Sonawane speculated that Desai could be squatting at a train or bus station, possibly trying to get back home. For months Desai has been demanding that India deport him and provide better amenities until his departure.
Police have been given an all-points bulletin to keep their eyes peeled for the escaped ex-convict. Police have also been dispatched to Mumbai and Kolhapur districts where some of Desai’s relatives live.
According to Inspector H.N.M. Shaikh of Sahakarnagar police station, after Desai said his dawn prayers, he asked head constable D.H. Sankpal to accompany him for breakfast. The policeman agreed and asked him to wait a few minutes. During that time Desai walked out of the police station. Police said he took his documents folder with him.
“Since Desai’s clothes and other valuables were at the police station, we expected him to return soon,” Inspector Shaikh said.
Because Desai isn’t technically a prisoner, police are treating the incident as missing person’s case rather than a case of an escaped convict.
Desai’s lawyer Vidyadhar Koshe said that he has not heard from his client since his disappearance. “The police just contacted me to enquire whether I had any information on his whereabouts,” he said.
The Sahakarnagar police arrested Desai in June 1999 for allegedly passing vital information to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency. Desai pleaded guilty in October 2007, and a court sentenced him to seven years of imprisonment.
When the court delivered the sentence, Desai had already completed over eight years in prison; hence, he was released in October. However, because Desai has not been deported, and because he has no money, he has been forced to reside in police custody camping out in a jail cell in a state of unofficial parole. Authorities have been loath to let a convicted spy simply walk away and continue to reside in India.
