New Delhi: A day after high drama unfolded in Mohammad Haneef’s case - following reports of Australian police forging details in the doctor’s diary and allegedly writing the names of overseas terror suspects in his personal diary - there has been a fresh twist to the case.
An Indian newspaper reports Haneef has given a clean chit to the Australian Federal Police and has told his cousin that the handwriting in the diary was his and not the officers’.
The Times of India quotes Imran Siddiqui – Haneef’s cousin who reached Brisbane late on Monday night – as saying that the detained doctor dismissed the media reports about diary tampering as speculation.
Haneef also reportedly told Siddiqui that he had written the name and address of Kafeel Ahmed – the key suspect in failed UK terror plot – himself.
"Haneef had written about his cousins' contact details in the diary sometime around 2004 while on his way to the UK. The entry is not significant. He just noted down where his cousins were living as he was going to the UK for the first time. He did not know the place. There's not much to it,” TOI quotes Siddiqui as saying.
Siddiqui reached Australia after State and Federal Authorities cleared the way for him to represent Haneef’s family and provide moral support to the detained doctor.
"I'm just here to see how the legal proceedings are going on and see if we can strengthen the legal approach," he said.
"I'm really very happy with the legal team which is working right now and I thank the judiciary [for] granting bail for Haneef. That shows the judiciary has confidence in him,” he added.
Tampering business
A report in Australian daily The Australian revealed on Monday that investigating officers wrote the names of overseas terror suspects in Haneef's personal diary, only to later grill him during an interrogation over whether he had written the potentially incriminating notes.
The said error on the part of police was revealed in the record of the first interview between Haneef and two officers from the AFP's counter-terrorism force, Queensland Detective Sergeant Adam Simms and federal agent Neil Thompson.
PTI reports that during the interview, Sergeant Simms asked Haneef, "In your diary, you had handwritten notes. Is this your writing?"
To which, Haneef responded, "No. This is not my writing. Definitely not."
The interview was conducted soon after Haneef was arrested at Brisbane International Airport on July 2 for allegedly providing support to a terrorist organisation.
The list of hand-written names included contact details of Kafeel Ahmed.
Comments
0 comment