In another episode of ‘relatives are equal to pareshaani’, a couple from Mumbai was given a sponsored honeymoon trip by a relative and they were later arrested at Hamad International Airport in July 2019 after Qatari authorities recovered 4.1kg hashish from their bag.

The couple Mohommad Shareeq and his wife Oniba Kauser Shakeel Ahmed had gone for their honeymoon. Also, their honeymoon was sponsored by their relatives.

However, they were unaware that the relative, Shareeq’s paternal aunt Tabassum Riyaz Quereshi was using them as drug carriers.

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Qureshi who sponsored the trip had hidden around 4.1 Kg of hashish in their bags, claiming that it was tobacco that they should hand over to a friend in Doha.

Not only this, the couple was also arrested by the authorities and despite their pleas, they were sentenced to 10 years in jail.

Oniba also found out that she was pregnant and delivered a baby girl in jail last year. After the couple was sent to jail, Oniba’s father Shakeel Ahmed had written to NCB Director General Rakesh Asthana in September 27,2019. Only after this, the probe was started and the agency started looking into the case.

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He wrote, "In his letter, Qureshi had said his daughter and son in law were deceived in the garb of a honeymoon package by a woman named Tabassum Riyaz Qureshi and her associate Nizam Kara. An NCB probe found the couple was trapped by a drug-running network infamous as the Kasargod syndicate.”

Then, the Narcotics Control Bureau (/NCB) had then approached authorities in Qatar through diplomatic channels, and the couple was brought back, said KPS Malhotra, the agency's deputy director.

However, the efforts made by the family finally paid off in January this year and the 10-year jail sentence was overturned by Qatar’s highest court.

They returned to India and reached Mumbai with their daughter on Wednesday morning.

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