Supreme Court directs police not to release passports of paedophilia case Britons

New Delhi, Aug 1 : The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Mumbai Police not to release passports of two British nationals, Duncan Grant and Allan John Waters, who were acquitted by the Bombay High Court in a case of paedophilia recently.

An NGO named Child Line India Foundation, a project of Ministry of Social Welfare and Empowerment, has filed an appeal in the apex court challenging their acquittal and sought stay of the verdict acquitting the foreign nationals.

A Bench headed by Chief Justice K. G. Balakrishnan allowed the NGO to inform the British High Commission about the court order. The matter has been posted for hearing after four weeks.

Following the acquittal from charges of assaulting young boys in Mumbai, the Britons were released from jail on Wednesday after two years in prison. Grant and Waters had appealed against a 2006 verdict sentencing them to six years in prison on charges of sodomy and assault.

The Mumbai High Court had acquitted them last Thursday, for lack of evidence against them.

ANI