A Delhi court has discharged a 37-year-old man who was arrested in connection with a 2003 murder in Redfern, Australia, after forensic evidence confirmed it was a case of mistaken identity.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Pranav Joshi, in an order passed on June 13, discharged Mohammed Basheeruddin after a Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) report found that his fingerprints did not match those found at the crime scene.

“The CFSL report, received on June 12, 2025, in sealed condition, was opened in court today. As per the report, the fingerprints of Mohammed Basheeruddin, who was arrested on May 17, 2025, are different from those of the original fugitive criminal,” the judge observed. “In view of the report, Mohammed Basheeruddin is discharged from the present proceedings.”

The case dates back to June 29, 2003, when the body of a man named Shoukat Mohammed was discovered stuffed inside a sleeping bag placed in a wheelie bin on James Street, Redfern. The autopsy revealed that the victim had been drugged, assaulted, and strangled.

Advocate Farhat Jahan Rehmani, representing Basheeruddin, argued that the actual suspect named in foreign records was one "Bashiruddin Mohd" — a different person altogether. She also submitted that her client had obtained an Indian passport in 2016 and had never traveled abroad since, except to Saudi Arabia.