The Punjab and Haryana high court has sought Punjab government’s response on a plea filed by a Pakistani national who strayed into India in 2017.
The high court bench of justice Jaishree Thakur acted on the plea of Mohamad Ramjaan, who along with co-accused Ali Raja, was booked for illegally entering into India under the provisions of Passports Act and Foreigners Act by Valtoha police as the Border Security Force did not find any valid travel documents with them. They both are residents of Kahna village in Lahore district of Pakistan.
Ramjaan has sought directions to release him forthwith as he has already undergone the imprisonment awarded to him by Patti court and now he is confined in jail “without” any order or authority.
He is lodged in Central Jail, Amritsar, and was held guilty for violation of Passports Act and Foreigners Act by a Patti Court on April 30, 2019, upon their confessions that they entered into India illegally but inadvertently. They were awarded two years of jail, which was to run concurrently in both the cases.
The court was told that the petitioner and co-accused have been behind bars since the day of arrest on August 14, 2017, for more than three years now. It is a well-settled law that individual liberty of the convict can’t be curtailed, and imprisonment cannot be extended without any valid order of the court, the court was told demanding that he be compensated for being kept in jail despite completion of sentence. The government response has been sought by April 1.