MUMBAI, July 26: A human rights organisation has taken up the cause of the South African couple and has reported their plight to the Chief Justice of Bombay High Court, M B Shah.The Citizens Organisation for Public Opinion (COPO) submitted a hand-written appeal by the elderly South Africans Norman Bell and Maureen Bate to the chief justice ``to do the needful in the matter'' in his chamber on Friday. Along with the letter, COPO has also attached newspaper reports on the travails of the couple who were rendered penniless after their illegal confinement in their room in a hotel in Khar for over 50 days.``We had been closely following the newspaper reports on this unique case. After realising that the couple had reached a dead-end and the consulate of their country too pleaded helplessness in expediting the matter with the Indian authorities, we decided to bring it to the notice of the Chief Justice,'' said the COPO president, Sanjeev Kanchan. Norman Bell said on Sunday, ``It's been over a month since weappealed to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to help us out of this mess. The matter is still dragging on and though NHRC was supposed to give their verdict on July 24, we have not yet heard anything from them in Delhi, or from our consulate. It's pathetic. We're stuck in a foreign land without a penny and for no fault of our our's.''Bell and Bate had arrived in Mumbai in May this year to reportedly study the business potential of leather export to South Africa. However, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), a central government agency, had forcibly confined the couple in their hotel room for nine days on suspicion of being drug carriers. However, the police could not find any incriminating evidence. The couple's passports were returned but no fresh airline tickets were issued, as earlier promised by the police.According to the SA couple, the NCB was also supposed to pay their hotel bills due to their forceful confinement which the police have denied. The couple continue to languish in roomnumber 106 of Hotel Neelkanth till date.``We now only hope that the Bombay High Court manages to end the deadlock, or else we are as good a prisoners for no fault of our own,'' said Bell.Meanwhile, their pending hotel bill has crossed over Rs 1.20 lakh and the hotel authorities are also planning to initiate legal proceedings against the South Africans to recover their dues.
