New Delhi: In a major relief to the octogenarian Pakistan virologist Dr Khalil Chisty, the Supreme Court Thursday allowed him to visit Pakistan within two weeks of depositing half a million rupees as security.
The court also directed Dr Chisty to deposit his passport to the Indian consulate in Karachi and be back in India on November 1.
Dr Chisty has been languishing at Ajmer prison of Rajasthan since 1992 being charged of a murder. Belonging to the family of caretakers of the Khwaja Moinuddin Chisty shrine, Chisty was in Ajmer to visit his ailing mother when he allegedly got embroiled in a dispute in which one of his neighbours was shot dead.
At the time of India's partition in 1947, he was studying in Pakistan and opted to stay back.
The Supreme Court had on May 4 agreed to hear Chisty's petition to visit his country and had sought the central government's response.
Senior counsel U.U. Lalit pleaded that Chisty be granted permission to visit Pakistan as a special case since he was suffering from various health-related problems and had already served 20 years in prison.
