The Australian police spent a whopping $ 7.5 million probing Mohammed Haneef, who was wrongly accused of terror charges, the country's police chief said on Monday while claiming that the Indian doctor did not have a case for compensation.
Mick Keelty told the Senate Estimates Committee that the Australian Federal Police (AFP) investigation of Haneef in connection with the failed UK terror bombings last year involved 470 police and customs officers.
"As at the end of December 2007, expenses for the investigation are in excess of $7.5 million," he was quoted by The Australian daily.
"That is made up of approximately $ 5.5 million of employee expenses of which $1.6 (million) accounts for overtime and approximately $1 million in supply expenses."
Keelty, who has ducked calls for his resignation after the Haneef episode which caused severe embarrassment to Canberra, said there had been an internal investigation but no changes had been made to processes inside the force.
"We have reviewed the Haneef matter as a matter of course and there's nothing that's arisen out of those reviews that required us to alter our policies or alter our approaches to
Attorney-General Robert McClelland is expected soon to announce the details of a judicial inquiry into the case.
"The AFP welcomes any inquiry into our role in the Haneef inquiry. We have absolutely nothing to hide," Keelty said maintaining that Haneef did not have any case for compensation.
"Every step we have taken has had some form of judicial oversight," Keelty said, adding there had been no formal
approach from Haneef's lawyers about compensation.
Lawyers of the 28-year-old Bangalore doctor, who was forced to return to his country even after dropping of charges, have spoken of $ 9 lakh compensation claiming his career has been ruined by police's actions
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