REPORTER: David O’Shea

When I arrived in Bangalore, it's almost three weeks since Dr Mohamed Haneef was detained. It's still five days before his release. He told Australian police that he was flying here to be reunited with his wife and newborn daughter. My rickshaw driver, like everyone else I meet here, is shocked at the charges against Haneef.

DRIVER, (Translation): Doctors don’t do these sorts of things.

I am on the way to visit Haneef's wife, Firdous. From the very beginning of his ordeal, she has protested his innocence.

FIRDOUS, HANEEF’S WIFE: I think whatever the Australian Government has done is completely unfair.

I arrive on a quiet day for Firdous. She is staying at her parents' home in a middle class suburb of Bangalore. It's tradition here that a woman stays 40 days with her parents after the birth of a child.

FIRDOUS: She's smiling.

It's clearly been a long few weeks for her, at times the house has been under siege by the Indian media. As soon as there is any news from Australia, the local media leap upon it and she comes out to answer their questions.

FIRDOUS: I just say that all the truth is coming out.

This is a huge story in India. Each twist and turn is dissected by every newspaper and TV station in the country.

FIRDOUS: I will know that the Australian police are so stupid to charge him on something so senseless.

At this stage the errors in the police and prosecutors handling of the case in Australia are yet to be fully revealed, but it seems the Indian police also have their brief on Mohamed Haneef. I was handed this document and told it was the police dossier on Haneef. Under the heading "Organisational set up", the entry refers to,

BRIEF: “Alleged links with Al Qaida”

Under the heading “Overall assessment”, it says:

BRIEF: “After having his education in Karnataka, Mohamed Haneef must have come into contacts with the members of terrorist entities and assisted..”

Under "General information inform it reads:

BRIEF: “Mohamed Haneef is suspected to have rended assistance to the prime accused persons in the Glasgow Airport blast attempt.”

It's not clear whether the purpose of this dossier to set out mere suspicions to be investigated or actual allegations. If the Indian police do have any hard evidence, they are not revealing it.

FIRDOUS: This is a recent one.

Fresh in from Sydney I have brought Firdous the latest Australian newspapers.

REPORTER: Have you seen him before?

Not surprisingly, the way this case has gone, she has as many questions for me as I have for her, mainly about the telephone SIM card Haneef gave his second cousin Sabeel which was said to be found in the burning car. This was later revealed as a key error in the prosecutor's case.

FIRDOUS: The police, did they know about this in the beginning only or was it afterwards and they didn't want to reveal it. I guess it was like that. If they knew that, they wouldn't have done so much.

Firdous says some of the earlier reporting was fanciful.

FIRDOUS: That he was familiarizing himself with operating planes is completely without reason. He’s scared to sit on a roller-coaster. How will he think of flying a plane?

REPORTER: How did you first hear the news he had been arrested?

FIRDOUS: I got a call from the Australian police.

REPORTER: Based here in India?

FIRDOUS: No, from Australia.

REPORTER: What did they say?

FIRDOUS: They said that do you know Haneef? I said yes, I'm his wife. Then he said Haneef has been arrested.

One thing she doesn't understand is speculation in the Australian press that the Government has a political motive for keeping her husband in detention.

FIRDOUS: I have seen the comments in the news website. It's because of the elections and all but I don't understand what they would gain from this, though, the elections.

REPORTER: How do you feel when you first read all of this stuff? How did it make you feel?

FIRDOUS: Very, very angry. It’s the first time this is happening in our family. It was, you know, very hard seeing all these things.

REPORTER: Now you say it's getting better because slowly...

FIRDOUS: The truth is coming out.

Haneef studied here at this medical college. His teacher when he began in 1997 was Dr B. R. Ramesh. He is now the principal of the college and says he was taken aback when he first heard his former student was caught up in a terrorist case.

DR B.R.RAMESH: The first time it is happening, it was a shock. In fact we did not understand the implication at that particular point of time.

The Indian media are quick to pick up on news later proven to be false, that the Australian Federal Police have written the name of Haneef's terror suspects cousins in his diary.

NEWS REPORT: In a startling claim that is likely to fuel allegations that the Australian police are perhaps trying to trump up charges against detained Indian doctor, Dr Mohamed Haneef, his lawyer claims the police haven't been quite straight with the evidence.

This is the house Haneef's family used to rent. He stayed here when he visited them from England, where he worked as a doctor before moving to Australia.

WOMAN: He has been trapped.

REPORTER: Unlike other parts of India, Bangalore has very little experience of terrorism. It's India's IT capital and not known for its religious extremism but after the failed terror plots in Britain, people here are worried that amongst the large Muslim minority, there are terrorist elements at work.

Haneef's second cousin, Kafeel Ahmed was in the car filled with gas canisters, driven into the passenger term national at Glasgow airport. He is now fighting for his life with burns to 90% of his body. Kafeel's brother, Sabeel, is also in detention in the UK, charged with withholding information on a terrorist act. After the arrests in the UK, the Bangalore police brought their mother and sister in for questioning. The results of their interrogation are not known. The big question is, how much did Mohamed Haneef know about the Ahmed brothers activities?

FIRDOUS: I have spoken to Kafeel, he never stayed with us in the UK. But Sabeel used to come to our house during the weekends. He used to stay in Liverpool and we also stayed in Liverpool, so he used to come during the weekends.

REPORTER: Did your husband ever talk about, you know, them being radicalised or anything like that?

FIRDOUS: Never. They were simple people. That's what I heard from my husband.

REPORTER: Did you hear about people they were mixing with in England or anything like this?

FIRDOUS: Maybe, I don't know. Maybe.

But it was handing his SIM card to his second cousin Sabeel that first landed Haneef in trouble. Firdous confirms what her husband told the Australian police, that he tried to contact the British police with this information.

FIRDOUS: He did try to call the UK investigators.

REPORTER: As soon as he heard about it?

FIRDOUS: Yes

REPORTER: And told them he had given him his SIM card.

FIRDOUS: Yeah, he wanted to tell them but they didn't pick up the phone or something, the person he tried to call. My husband was trying to help the police and the police have put him back.

Kafeel and Sabeel Ahmed are from an affluent, well-respected family. Their names are proudly displayed on the front gate. They prayed at the mosque right in front of their house. Apart from that, they kept to themselves.

MAN, (Translation): If you ask anyone here about Kafeel and Sabeel, they’ll say they had nothing to do with them. We don't know about their extra activities. If it really is Kafeel, that is wrong. What he has done is wrong. It shouldn’t be linked to religion.

NEWS REPORT: A top Australian leading expert says the case is about to collapse.

FIRDOUS: Hi Peter it’s Firdous from Bangalore.

It's Wednesday and things are looking up for Firdous. She is on the phone to Haneef's lawyer in Australia, Peter Russo, who tells her the director of public prosecutions has taken up the matter.

PETER RUSSO, HANEEF’S LAWYER: He is the boss of all the prosecutors of the Commonwealth in Australia. He is going to review the case against Mohamed. All right, but we have just got to wait and see what out outcome of that is. Have the journalists been driving you craze?

FIRDOUS: Yes.

48 hours later, news comes from Australia that the charges have been dropped. Once again, the media descend on Firdous.

FIRDOUS: I am happy he has been proved innocent.

REPORTER: How long do you expect it to take now before you see him back home?

FIRDOUS: Two or three days.

WOMAN: You expect him home in two or three days?

FIRDOUS: Yes.

REPORTER: Do you realise people are calling for the resignation of the police chief and all kinds of political fall out in Australia?

FIRDOUS: Yes.

REPORTER: What do you think about that?

FIRDOUS: I don't know. It's their internal decision.

WOMAN: Would your husband now want to work in Australia again or in any other country?

FIRDOUS: I don't know.

As she goes in, the national wire service misinterprets the decision.

WOMAN: He has been proved innocent. The Indian government and the Prime Minister in particular as well as the ministry of external affairs for all their support.

WOMAN 2: Bangalore is relieved right now but looking back it seems just a bit unfair.

As the media is let in to get the all important shot of Firdous with her baby, across town at Haneef's family home, his mother and sister are receiving visitors.

HANEEF’S MOTHER, (Translation): I’m so happy that my son has been released. If you had given me the whole world, you couldn’t have made me happier.

REPORTER: You are neighbours or friends?

WOMEN: Neighbours.

REPORTER: It has been a long month?

WOMAN: We are very thankful to the Australian citizens and those who have helped, who have signed and protested and supported in any case.

REPORTER: Will you be hoping for an apology from the Australian Government? You want them to say sorry?

WOMAN: Because he has done nothing, he has gone through mental torture. So they have to apologise. He is a right person. He is not in a wrong way, he is a true person.

REPORTER: I think the police today said they will not be apologising.

WOMAN: It depends on them, but they have to apologise.

REPORTER: Will you be looking for some kind of apology from the Australian Government or some kind of compensation or anything like that?

FIRDOUS: I want my husband back. That's enough for me, that's more than enough for me.