Bahrain diplomat accused of abusing woman sent home

Bahrain's Consul General in Mumbai Mohammed Abdul Aziz Al Khaja, accused of abusing the manager of the housing society he lived in, ransacking her office and threatening to kill her, leaves India

Exactly three weeks after he was accused of abusing and manhandling a woman, Bahrain's Consul General in Mumbai Mohammed Abdul Aziz Al Khaja was sent back to his home countryon Friday night.

Mohammed Abdul Aziz Al Khaja has been transferred to Bahrain

While some reports said the Union Home ministry had issued a formal order asking Khaja to immediately leave India, the Bahrain Embassy in India tweeted that Al Khaja had been "transferred to Bahrain" because he had completed histerm.

Confirming the news to SUNDAY Mid Day, a top bureaucrat in the Maharashtra government said the state had received an intimation to this effect from the Union Home Ministry. Khaja was booked for molestation earlier this month. Khaja returned to Bahrain on Friday evening by a Jet Airways flight, 9W 592 that left Mumbai at 7.05pm.

The diplomat was accused of abusing and attacking a 49-year-old woman, a manager at the Silver Arch residential society in Malabar Hill where Khaja also resided.

He was reportedly upset over one of the elevators in the building being shut for repairs and ransacked the woman's office premises after an angry exchange of words. Speaking to SMD earlier, the victim had said the diplomat had kept banging the elevator door and abused and pushed her when she asked him to calm down.

The consul general had himself called police officials to the building after the fight, after which the victim decided to register a case with the local Malabar Hill police station. Later after the police officials came to the building premises, they noted down the statements of both the parties and registered a case against the diplomat.

According to the woman's complaint to the cops on December 13, even after the police intervened, Khaja allegedly barged into her office and threatened to kill her. The woman was provided police protection after the incident.

Khaja was been booked under Sections 354 (1) (assault or use of criminal force on a woman) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult) of the Indian Penal Code. However, he was not arrested because he enjoyed diplomatic immunity.

When contacted, Additional Commissioner of Police Krishna Prakash (south region) said, "Bahrain Embassy officials had come to India and took the consul general back along with them on Friday."u00a0