Hyderabad: A 51-year-old Pakistani national was released from a Central Prison here after the Telangana High Court set aside a state government order according permission to the police for detaining him in connection with a case for allegedly obtaining Indian passport fraudulently.
Shaik Gulzar Khan alias Gulzar Massih was released from the Cherlapally Central prison here last week following the orders by a Bench comprising Justice K Lakshman and Justice P Sree Sudha on July 13.
“The GO No. 599 issued by respondent No.1 (Telangana government) is illegal and the same is liable to be set aside,” the bench said in its orders, while quashing the government order.
“However, this order will not preclude 4th respondent (Union of India) in completing the process of deportation of the detenu in accordance with law,” the High Court order said.
Gulzar Khan, a native of Sialkot district in Punjab province of Pakistan, was accused of forging documents and entering India in 2011. According to a police official, Gulzar married a woman from Andhra Pradesh and was working as a painter there.
While living in India, without revealing his original identity, he had obtained an Indian passport, besides Aadhaar and voter ID cards allegedly with fake documents, police had said.
In 2019, the city police filed a case against Gulzar Khan and he was charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Foreigners Act, and the Passport Act, and arrested from Secunderabad here. Subsequently, a local court granted him bail.
However, following a request by the police to accord permission to detain him till his deportation process to Pakistan is completed, the Telangana government had issued a Government Order (GO) authorising police to detain him in the prison.
The police again took him into custody in February 2022 and he was detained in Cherlapally Central prison since then.
Gulzar Khan’s wife filed a petition in the High Court challenging the GO.
M A Shakeel, counsel for the petitioner, argued that the state government has no powers to grant permission to the police to detain a person.
The High Court has quashed the state government’s detention order against Gulzar Khan, though the case against him will continue, he said.
