A Saudi citizen from the Eastern Province, Mohammed Ali Al-Qitar, who was sentenced by a lower court in India in a human-trafficking case, has been acquitted and discharged by an upper court.

Al-Qitar was arrested in Sunauli town on the Indo-Nepal border in Maharajgunj district of Uttar Pradesh on June 23, 2012 along with Nayyar Kamal, an Indian national hailing from Jaunpur district of Uttar Pradesh. The Indian police arrested them for being allegedly involved in the trafficking of three Nepalese women. Though Al-Qitar denied the charge the court found them guilty.

The duo was sentenced to seven years in prison by the additional sessions judge in Maharajgunj on March 19 this year.

The Saudi Embassy in New Delhi followed up on the case and attended the trial proceedings. It found that the Nepalese women did not have any visa or passport to prove that there were attempts to take them out of the country. It was also proved that the three women were adults and not minor as was alleged by the prosecution.

Saudi Ambassador to New Delhi Saud Mohammed Alsati took up the matter with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and top police brass, including the state’s director general of police A.C. Sharma during his visit to Lucknow.

Al-Qitar appealed to the Allahabad High Court against his conviction, with the help of the Saudi Embassy which appointed senior lawyer G.S. Chaturvedi to argue the case.

An Allahabad High Court bench, led by Justice Anil Kumar Sharma, quashed the verdict Friday on the grounds that there was no evidence to prove the charges against Al-Qitar and ordered his release. The court also ordered the police to release his passport that was confiscated.

The Saudi Embassy in New Delhi, in a statement on Saturday, thanked the Indian officials for their help and expressed its confidence in the Indian judicial system.