NEW DELHI: A Delhi court has discharged a man who was arrested for an alleged murder that took place in Redfern, Australia, back in 2003. The court said it was a case of mistaken identity after forensic experts confirmed his fingerprints did not match the crime records.
Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Pranav Joshi passed the order on June 13, freeing 37-year-old Mohammed Basheeruddin from the proceedings after examining the fingerprint analysis.
“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. The case dates back to June 29, 2003, when the body of a man named Shoukat Mohammed was found inside a sleeping bag in a wheelie bin on James Street, Redfern. The victim had been drugged, assaulted, and then strangled.
Advocate Farhat Jahan Rehmani, who appeared for Basheeruddin, argued that the name in the foreign records was “Bashiruddin Mohd,” which referred to someone else. The full name of the man arrested in Delhi was “Mohammed Basheeruddin,” a different individual.
The defence also told the court that Basheeruddin Mohd had obtained his Indian passport in 2016 and had never travelled abroad, except to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.