'We have nothing on Haneef's Qaeda links'

Bangalore Police say they have not prepared any dossier on the doc's possible links as claimed by the Australian media.

Bangalore Police said on Thursday they had no information on Mohamed Haneef's possible links with Al-Qaeda as claimed by a section of the Australian media.

HT Image

Australia's SBS television channel reported on Wednesday that an Indian police file on Haneef prepared after his arrest in Brisbane, referred to his alleged links with Al-Qaeda.

"We have not prepared any such dossier," Bangalore Police Commissioner Neelam Achuta Rao and Joint Commissioner (crime) Gopal Hosur told reporters in Bangalore.

Peter Russo, the Australian lawyer for Haneef, also doubted the existence of such a dossier. The Australian police did not question Haneef about it during his interrogation, Russo, now in Mysore, told reporters.

The Bangalore Police had said soon after Australia dropped charges against Haneef last week that they intended to talk to him to know about his activities in Bangalore before he went abroad for work.

The police are also keen to know if he had any financial dealings with Kafeel Ahmed and Sabeel Ahmed, two suspects in the failed bombing bids in London and Glasgow in June-end who are also his cousins.

Haneef is now fighting a legal battle in an Australian court for restoration of his visa that was revoked by Australian Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews on the ground that the Indian doctor had failed the "character test".