SA couple illegally held for nine days on drugs charge

In a letter to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), the foreign nationals have pleaded for assistance, urging the commission to direct the NCB to foot their hotel bill as promised and pay for fresh airline tickets.

In his letter to the Delhi-based NHRC, 55-year-old resident of Cape Town, Norman Bell, and his friend from Johannesburg, Maureen Bate, recount their story in the captivity of a room in Hotel Neelkanth at Linking Roadlast month. “We appeal for your urgent assistance/advice regarding matters that have developed since our arrival in India which have left us destitute,” Bell says in the letter.

He told Express Newsline on Tuesday that they were detained between June 1 and 9, 1998, for eight days after their scheduled departure to South Africa. Officers of the NCB traced them to their Khar hotel after following their business partner M Yusuf, who had arranged a meeting with them in their room.

The couple had arrived in India in May this year to research the marketing of leather and textile fabrics in South Africa. All expenses were paid by Yusuf, their Mumbai business acquaintance, who later turned out to be a drug smuggler.

The couple say they had first checked in at a hotel at Colaba but shifted to the Khar hotel on June 1, a day prior to their return flight to South Africa. With less than 24 hours to go before their departure, Yusuf dropped the bombshell. He said the leather bag they had purchased as asample would be stuffed with Mandrax tablets, to be smuggled out by air.

“We were shocked to learn about the Mandrax part and strongly refused to carry the bag on our way back; but while we were still arguing, two gentlemen representing the Indian authority barged inside the room and immediately whisked away Yusuf for questioning,” Bell explains.

The officers subsequently searched their hotel room and baggage but found no narcotics in their possession, they claim. However, they were detained for nine days in their hotel during which period at least two NCB officers kept vigil round-the-clock in shifts to see that they did not flee. They were also denied access to the telephone, they say.

Nine days later, the NBC officers “set them free” without explaining why they had been detained for such an extended period. Suddenly, they were free but, ironically, could not leave as they were dumped with a hotel bill of Rs 70,000 till date.

“After nine days of sheer mental torture, our passports werereturned, but the airline tickets remained unaltered, which meant that the cops had not issued us fresh tickets as promised. No charges were slapped on us as no drugs were found on us and the police seems to have conveniently forgotten that we exist,” said Bell.

NCB officials were tight-lipped and a senior officer (who insisted on anonymity) denied that the South Africans had been detained at all. While admitting that he is aware of the case, the officer told Express Newsline he could say no more as the matter is “confidential”. He also refused to divulge details about Yusuf.

The couple, who is still staying at the Khar hotel, has been given a fortnight to raise money to foot their bill. However, they say they cannot raise the money. “When we contacted our consulate, officials told us that at the most we could get a loan to go back to our country. But what about the mental agony that we went through here… stuck in a strange land with no money. Apart from a few names of the cops, we still donot know which branch of the police had held us under hotel arrest.”

The South African Vice-Consul General, R Pio, admits that no charges were framed by the police, but he refused to elaborate.

Hotel Neelkanth employees confirm the NCB officials’ presence during the nine-day detention period but the manager is more interested in the couple paying their bill. The NHRC has now referred the case to the Mumbai Commissioner of Police, R H Mendonca, even though the city police is not concerned with the NCB, an independent central government agency. Mendonca told Express Newsline he is not aware of the NHRC’s letter, explaining that faxes received by the commissioner’s office are sorted out and dispatched to various branches of the police before the relevant ones come to him. He said this one in particular must have been dispatched to the Special Branch of the Mumbai Police. Dilip Shrirao, deputy commissioner of police, who heads the Narcotics Cell, Mumbai, says he is not aware of the case as the cellis not concerned with the NCB.