Delhi Court Discharges Man Falsely Arrested For Murder In Australia In 2003

A Delhi court has discharged a man apprehended for alleged murder in Redfern, Australia, in 2003.

The court noted that it was a case of mistaken identity as his fingerprints did not match with the actual crime file.

Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Pranav Joshi discharged Mohammed Basheeruddin, 37, in an order passed on June 13 after considering the forensic reports.

"On June 12, 2025, the report of the CFSL was received in sealed condition. Today, the report is opened in the open court. As per the report, the fingerprints of Mohammad Basheeruddin, who was arrested on May 17, 2025, are different from the fingerprints of the original FC (fugitive criminal)," the judge said on Friday.

"In view of the report, Mohammad Basheeruddin is discharged from the present proceedings," he added.

Earlier on June 29, 2003, the body of a man named Shoukat Mohammed was found inside a sleeping bag in wheelie bin on James Street, Redfern.

The victim was drugged and assaulted before being strangled to death.

Advocate Farhat Jahan Rehmani, appearing for the current accused, told the court that the name of the actual accused mentioned in foreign records was Bashiruddin Mohd, a different individual from the current accused, whose full name was Mohammed Basheeruddin.

The counsel claimed that the current accused obtained his Indian passport in 2016 and since then has never travelled outside India except Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)