Bhupal Man Damai alias Yusuf Nepali, one of the three non-Pakistani conspirators behind the sensational hijacking of Indian Airlines flight IC-814 to Kandahar in December 1999, is likely to be released from central jail, Patiala on Friday. Prison authorities have received a no-objection certificate from jails of other states where cases against him were lodged after Nepali's arrest in 1999, sources said. 

Among the 10 accused named by the CBI for conspiring and executing the hijacking, seven were Pakistani nationals and two - Dilip Kumar Bhujel and Abdul Latif Adam Momin - were Indians. Yusuf is a resident of Nepal. Bhujel, Momin and Nepali were charged for providing logistical support to the main accused. 

"Prior to Nepali's release, we required NOC from states where cases were lodged against him, which we received on Wednesday. The NOC means that there is no case pending against an individual in a particular state. Nepali has already served the sentence awarded to him under the Arms Act. Some amount of fine is pending, which his relatives will deposit on Thursday, after which he will be released," said a jail official, requesting anonymity. 

Nepali is being released after the Punjab and Haryana high court had in February exonerated him and Bhujel of murder, hijacking and other offences on grounds that the investigation agency failed to prove their "active participation" in the plot to capture the plane. The court, however, held them guilty under section 25 of the Arms Act. 

Before that, a special CBI court at Patiala on February 5, 2008 had convicted Nepali, Bhujel and Momin for their involvement in hijacking and awarded them life imprisonment. 

However, the CBI had approached the high court seeking death sentence for Momin, which the court rejected on grounds of prolonged custody of Momin, who has been in jail since 1999. Momin and Nepali were arrested in Mumbai during investigations into a bank robbery. While Momin is lodged in Patiala jail, Bhujel, who was also exonerated along with Nepali, had been shifted to a jail in West Bengal in 2009.