Barreto: a sigh of relief

Mohun Bagan striker Jose Ramirez Barreto will soon be in cooler climes, thanks to a high court order on Wednesday that asked the customs authorities to hand him back his passport.

While Calcutta is a frying pan at the moment with the maximum temperature hovering around 40 degrees Celsius, the mercury climbed only to 25 degrees Celsius in Barreto’s hometown Porto Alegre on Wednesday.

The heat was on the 31-year-old footballer since he was arrested at the airport for carrying excess foreign exchange on March 20. He was granted bail the same day but his passport was confiscated.

Barreto, who was on the way to Brazil to join his wife and daughter for a vacation, had said that he had been praying a lot. He could not be contacted on Wednesday, but his friends said he was relieved to get back the passport and felt that his prayers had been answered.

Barreto also told his friends that he would be back in Calcutta before the Bayern Munich-Mohun Bagan match on May 29.

The high court granted the footballer leave of a month and a half against a bank guarantee of Rs 15 lakh. Justice Asim Roy, in his order, also asked Barreto to produce two personal security bonds worth Rs 10,000 each before the First Fast Track Court in Barasat to get back his passport temporarily.

“Barreto will have to submit the passport again to customs within 48 hours of returning to the country,” Justice Roy said in his order.

A Barasat court had earlier granted Barreto bail but the customs authorities moved an appeal before the high court against the order. The high court upheld the Barasat court’s order on Wednesday, said advocate Sourav Ganguli, who appeared for Barreto in the high court.

The court overruled Calcutta Customs’ advocate Biswa Ranjan Ghosal’s argument that Barreto should not be given permission to leave the country for the sake of investigation.

According to Maidan sources, Barreto’s lawyers will produce the high court order along with the bank guarantees before the Barasat court on Thursday.

“After obtaining the order from the Barasat court, we will produce the same before customs,” said Joymalya Bagchi, who also appeared for the footballer in the high court.