Calcutta High Court on Tuesday asked Gul Mohammed Khan alias Gul Afghan, an Afghan refugee staying in India since 1984, to leave the country within three weeks.

The second wife of Khan, who has been accused of anti-national activities, is from Hyderabad and their two sons were born in Calcutta nursing homes. He runs an STD booth on Rabindra Sarani and owns a guesthouse on Sudder Street.

Justice Dipankar Dutta on Tuesday dismissed Khan’s petition challenging a notice issued by Foreigners’ Regional Registration Officer (FRRO), Calcutta, on January 1 asking him to leave the country. In 1984, Khan had obtained a certificate for staying in the country for six years. It was renewed till January 1997, when the FRRO, on the basis of a Union home ministry order, asked him to leave the country.

Khan moved a petition before the City Civil Court in Calcutta. Opposing the plea, both the central and state governments had informed the judge that the refugee was an agent of a terrorist organisation based in Pakistan. “He had been collecting funds to help the Afghan rebels,” a government lawyer claimed.

Khan denied the charge. He said he had set up his businesses after obtaining permission from the state government and the Calcutta Municipal Corporation.

The civil court on June 1, 2002, dismissed Khan’s petition. “Surprisingly, neither the state government nor the central government deported Khan,” said Partha Sarathi Deb Burman, the lawyer who represented Khan in the high court.

Appearing for FRRO, the junior standing counsel of the state, Subrata Mukhopadhaya, said his client had information that Khan was involved in anti-Indian activities. “In 1999, he was arrested for violating the Foreigners’ Act and was in jail for 35 days.”