It was the stand of the Union Government that neither any case was registered against the duo nor were they picked up by the police as alleged in the petition filed by Ruquaiya through her counsel, Anil Karnwal.

According to the petition filed in 2006, the brothers who were running a leather factory in Nepal since 1995, were picked up by the police on August 28, 2000, after the Indian Airlines Aircraft IA 814 was hijacked minutes after take-off from Kathmandu on December 24, 1999 and later diverted to Kandahar in Afghanistan. Mushtaq Ahmad Raha and Mohd Shafi Rah, according to the petition, were among the 27 Kashmiris arrested by the Nepali police at the request of the Indian authorities.

However, since then it was claimed their whereabouts were not known despite directions from the NHRC and J&K Government for their production.

Having failed to know their whereabouts, the family filed a petition with the apex court seeking their production. Quoting some Home Ministry officials, the family claimed that the brothers were detained in a jail at Jodhpur, Rajasthan, a contention rebutted by the Government.

The apex court that had earlier issued notice to the Government on the issue, after several hearings and perusal of the replies filed by the Centre dismissed the petition on Tuesday. The missing youth according to the family are originally residents of Mohalla Maharajganj in Srinangar and were reportedly shifted to Nepal in 1995 for carrying out leather business, the family had claimed.