Indian appeals court acquits Iranian aid worker of manslaughter charges

EghtesadOnline: A young Iranian charity worker, who has been embroiled in a criminal case in India since 2014 over the death of a young boy, says she has finally been cleared of manslaughter charges following a lengthy court battle.

News ID: ۷۴۰۵۶۶

26 March 2017

In a post on her Telegram Messenger channel, Narges Kalbasi Ashtari wrote she had been acquitted of all her charges by an Indian appeals court, PressTV reported.

According to the post, Kalbasi Ashtari has also been given the right by the court to seek compensation for the hardships she has gone through since 2014, when she was barred from leaving India amid her court battle.

She further thanked her compatriots as well as authorities for standing by her all through the legal process.

Reacting to the report, Iranian Foreign Minister took to his Instagram page to offer congratulations to Ashtari and express gratitude for the public campaign in support of the  charity worker’s cause.

Kalbasi Ashtari, 28, had been convicted of “involuntary manslaughter” in 2014, when a five-year-old boy disappeared during a riverside picnic organized by the 28-year-old Iranian charity worker in India’s eastern Odisha State.

The boy belonged to a couple, who worked for Ashtari and were also present at the scene when the child went missing.

Indian public prosecutor Sachidanand Khardanga had claimed the 2014 incident occurred on the negligence of Ashtari, the head of the Prishan charity foundation.

Ashtari had been sentenced to a year in jail for causing the death, a charge she strongly denied.

In an interview with Press TV last year, Ashtari said she would “appeal to court,” stressing her determination to keep up the “fight for rights of children.”

The Iranian-born activist grew up and went to school in Britain. Ashtari’s parents both died due to an incurable disease, so she decided to dedicate her life to serving orphans.

On December 28, 2016, Foreign Minister Zarif vowed that Tehran would use all its capacity to secure the release of the activist.

The founder of Prishan orphanage home in the Rayagada district in Odisha, Ashtari is considered a mother to numerous under-privileged children in India.