Qureshi remand extended

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, DEC. 31. The Delhi High Court today extended the stay till January 2 on the lower court order granting transit remand of Mr. Hashim Qureshi, the 1971 accused hijacker of an Indian Airlines plane, to Jammu and Kashmir police.

A special division Bench, comprising Mr. Justice Cyriac Joseph and Mr. Justice S.N. Kapoor, posted the case for further hearing till Tuesday when the Union Government, the Jammu and Kashmir police, the Delhi Police and Mr. Qureshi's counsel would make their submissions.

At today's hearing, lasting nearly four hours, neither the Government counsel nor Mr. Qureshi's counsel could place the exact legal position before the Court on the issue of handing Mr. Qureshi to Srinagar Police.

The special Bench of the High Court is hearing the petition of Mr. Qureshi, challenging his detention by the Delhi Police after he arrived here from Copenhagen and remanding him to the custody of Jammu and Kashmir police. The Bench instructed that all relevant laws and Supreme Court judgments referred to by the counsel from both sides should be placed before it by tomorrow evening.

The senior counsel Mr. K.T.S. Tulsi, appearing for Mr. Qureshi, challenged his client's detention and custody to Jammu and Kashmir police on the grounds that he had already been convicted for the offence by a Pakistani court and served nine years of prison term there. The Delhi Police and the Jammu and Kashmir Government counsel said that Mr. Qureshi was only tried for the offence of ``wrongful confinement'' of passengers in Pakistan and not for hijacking, kidnapping and robbery, mentioned in the FIR.

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