Rs 28 cr spent, Aus cops still probing Haneef

Australian police is still investigating Mohammed Haneef, eight months after terror charges against him were dropped, piling on expenses in the bungled case that has cost the country a whopping $7 million (Rs 28 crore).

Nine police staff members were working on the case full time and five others provided assistance to the investigation 'periodically', Australian Federal Police, which faced severe embarrassment after Haneef was exonerated, said while replying to a query in federal Parliament.

Asking the details of the probe, Greens Senator Kerry Nettle, in a pointed question, to AFP wondered whether the police was on a 'witch-hunt' to justify its handling of the Haneef case and said the Bangalore doctor should be left alone.

Haneef, 27, who was wrongly accused of supporting a terror organisation after his SIM card was allegedly found with the accused in the failed UK car bombings last year, returned to India after spending three weeks in detention as his work visa was cancelled by the then Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews on 'character grounds'.

An independent inquiry into the case is expected to start this month.

The revelation have been dubbed as 'astounding' by Haneef's lawyer Peter Russo who said he did not know what the police could be probing and its ongoing status was preventing Haneef from returning to Australia.

"The difficulty with it is that we don't know exactly what it is that they're investigating or why," he said.