In the first step towards his deportation, Hossam Mohamed, the Egyptian national who was arrested in Mumbai based on a Red Corner Notice (RCN) in his name, was on Tuesday sent to New Delhi to be produced in a court there. The matter will now be handled by the Central Bureau of Investigation, officials said.
The Hindu had in its March 25 edition reported how Mohamed was detained at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport on March 24 and placed under arrest, after which the Extradition Cell of the Mumbai Police Crime Branch started the process of deporting him.
“Mohamed was on Tuesday taken to the Patiala House Court, which hears matters of deportation, and was remanded in judicial custody. The CBI, which is the nodal agency for the Interpol in India, has now taken over his extradition process,” said a senior police officer.
The deportation process will be conducted through the Ministry of External Affairs once a formal request from Egypt seeking his extradition comes in, said officials.
Mohamed was wanted in the widespread violence that occurred in Egypt in 2013 following the ouster of former Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi. The instances of violence included the storming of a local police station in the town of Matay by a large mob, in which a police officer was killed. More than 500 accused were later convicted in absentia, many of them residents of Matay, where Mohamed, too, hails from.
He was detained at the airport after he landed in Mumbai from the UAE, and his name was flagged at the immigration counter as the Interpol had issued an RCN in his name.
