KARACHI: Dr Saiyyad Mohammad Khaleel Chishty’s family received the shock of their lives when they learnt that the 78-year-old ailing scientist had been sentenced to 14 years in prison by an Indian court in January this year.

Fearing for his health, his family members are appealing to the government of India to release Dr Chishty on humanitarian grounds and have him repatriated.

“When he was taken to jail he was so weak that he could not walk on his own and was carried by two people. One of my relatives in Ajmer who visited him said that he just remains in his hospital bed and seems to be depressed and has lost all hope,” Shoa Jawaid, one of Dr Chishty’s daughters, told Dawn.

The background of Dr Khaleel Chishty’s sentencing and imprisonment is truly tragic.A virologist holding a PhD from the University of Edinburgh and having worked in different parts of the world, the man seems to have been caught at the wrong place at the wrong time.

While visiting his mother in 1992, Karachi-based Dr Chishty was present at his brother’s house in Rajasthan’s Ajmer city when an altercation, motivated by a family feud, occurred.

A local man was killed in the quarrel and the family says that Dr Chishty was falsely implicated in the case because of being a Pakistani.

From 1992 till the late 2010, for nearly two decades Dr Chishty’s case dragged through the Indian judicial system because he was put up in his ancestral farmhouse on the outskirts of Ajmer.

It was for all purposes a sub-jail and he was cut off from most of his family, who reside in different parts of the world.

His health deteriorated when he suffered a stroke in 2008, followed by paralysis, while in March 2010 he suffered from a hip fracture which remains unhealed.

Seeing his precarious condition, his family wrote to different Indian authorities asking to speed up the trial. However, to their dismay the court delivered a 14-year sentence.

Dr Chishty is lodged in Ajmer’s jail hospital. The family wants nothing more than their father to return to Karachi as soon as possible.

“At this point we are afraid for his life. My mother, who has lost her hearing, does not know about the fact that her husband is in prison. Everyday we fear for the worse: how long can a frail old man survive without any hope on a prison hospital bed?,”says Ms Jawaid.

Justice Nasir Aslam Zahid of the India-Pakistan Joint Judicial Committee, who is helping the family in their efforts to bring Dr Chishty back, says there are positive signs, but nothing has been finalised yet. “We are trying. A petition has been prepared, just as in the case of Indian prisoner Gopal Das, who has recently been repatriated to India.”

He said though the Supreme Court had no jurisdiction over the Indian courts, perhaps an appeal by the apex court could convince the Indian judiciary to remit Dr Chishty’s sentence.

“We can only make a request. It is up to the Indian authorities,” he told Dawn.

“We hope they take a compassionate view. There are encouraging reports that he will be released at the earliest. We don’t know when. An executive order [for his release] will have to be passed by the governor of Rajasthan. This is an ideal case to exercise discretion,” Justice Zahid said.