Kolkata: After nearly five years of being stuck in India, a west African footballer was granted relief on ‘humanitarian grounds' by the Jalpaiguri circuit bench of the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday. The court quashed a criminal case alleging his overstay in the country after his visa expired during the pandemic.
Quashing the FIR, Justice Rai Chattopadhyay wrote in the judgment: "A person enters into a country thousands of miles away from his own, for a period of six months, to earn some money which he must have been unable to accomplish in his own country... Hence, there is not any apparent reason for which the person should intentionally undertake an illegal means that might put him into deep trouble."
A specific motive for the alleged violation should have been forthcoming before the law enforcement authority to book him for the violation of the statutory provisions. Otherwise, a more intensive homework was expected from an authority entrusted with such a serious kind of responsibility, the judge stated. The footballer was represented by advocate Ujjal Ray.
A citizen of the Republic of Guinea Bissau, Camara Fofana Ussumane came to play football for different clubs in India. His six-month visa expired on July 5, 2020, when a nationwide lockdown was imposed. To cope with the circumstances, the visa period was extended as per the notification issued by the central govt on May 5, 2020, and similar relief was extended to the foreigners stuck in India who came prior to March 2020 by a notification on Sept 2, 2021.
Hence, Justice Chattopadhyay noted that the footballer would also be covered by the same and eligible for the benefits granted. So he ought to have been regarded as having a valid visa on the date the FIR was lodged against him at Naxalbari police station on April 27, 2021, under section 14 of the Foreigners Act, 1946.
The high court praised the footballer's due diligence in performing his duties as a visiting foreign national, as he submitted his application for the grant of exit permission, though the same was never considered thereafter.
"This should have been a fit case, therefore, not only to quash the entire criminal proceeding but also to direct for the grant by the State, to him. However, since the pandemic was a trying time, the inaction and the reckless conduct of the police authorities are hereby considered with leniency and no stringent direction is passed," the bench noted.
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