New Delhi, May 10
Rejecting government’s reservations, the Supreme Court today allowed 82-year-old Pakistani microbiologist Mohammed Khalil Chisti, undergoing life imprisonment in a murder case, to visit Pakistan till November 1.

A Bench comprising Justices P Sathasivam and J Chelameswar directed Chisti to provide a security of Rs 5 lakh in cash within two weeks and deposit his passport at the Indian High Commission at Karachi during his stay in Pakistan. The government had opposed Chisti’s plea, contending that it would be difficult to get him back in India in the absence of any extradition treaty with Pakistan.

The Bench also agreed to expedite the disposal of his appeal against his conviction by listing the case next hearing for November 20.

The apex court clarified that it had allowed him to visit Pakistan, primarily because of his exceptional educational qualifications and his standing in the field of education, besides the fact that he was not involved in any case other than the 20-year-old murder case. Chisti is lodged in Ajmer jail in Rajasthan.

In 1992, Chisti got involved in a brawl when he had come to India to see his ailing mother. In the incident, one person was shot dead. Born into a prosperous family of caretakers of the Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti shrine, Chisti was studying in Pakistan at the time of partition in 1947 and chose to stay back there.