Helping a Friend Lands a Good Samaritan in Jail

By M.P. Prabhakaran

[Based on letters and oral communications

received from friends of The East-West Inquirer in Bombay.]

            Good people always see goodness in others. The trust they repose in others in their interaction with them is a natural extension of that quality. But not all those whom they interact with deserve that trust. Many of them are crooks who have no qualms about betraying it. That is how good people often suffer at the hands of crooks. They suffer just for being good.

            Zaraius Dastoor was a pilot on Air India, India’s national airlines, for over 38 years. During his long career with the company, he had flown every advanced aircraft the company acquired. As his employers would vouch, his record of flying them and his service to the company had been impeccable.

             On October 9, 1997, Captain Dastoor reported for duty at Bombay’s international airport. He was to fly Air India’s Boeing 747 (B-400) to London en route to New York. He had with him a suitcase that was handed to him by one Dinshaw Pastakia, a recent acquaintance, with a request that it be taken to his daughter who at the time was in New York. She had to rush to New York a few days earlier, Dastoor was told, to take care of her brother who had undergone an emergency gallbladder surgery. Dastoor had heard about Pastakia's son's emergency surgery and about his daughter’s hurried departure for New York. He was more than happy to oblige. After all, the suitcase had only a few items of the daughter’s clothes in it.

            When Air India security staff scanned the suitcase, in the course of routine security check, they spotted some blurs in it. Many of them had known Dastoor for years and they had known him to be an absolute gentleman. Not for a single moment would they suspect him of doing anything untoward. They were about to dismiss the blurs as the defect of their machine and let him proceed to the aircraft when Dastoor himself insisted that the suitcase be examined thoroughly. He wanted even the slightest misunderstanding anyone might have had to be cleared. He also told them that the suitcase belonged to someone else and that he was carrying it to New York as a favor to that person.

            Accordingly, a senior customs officer was called in. The officer examined the suitcase, this time using a more sophisticated scanner. What had appeared as mere blurs before now showed up as several sachets. Customs officials cut the suitcase open when from below a carefully constructed false bottom of it came out 35 small plastic bags containing a white powder. The white powder was heroin. Captain Dastoor was horror-struck and speechless.

            The shocking news reached Mrs. Dastoor in a matter of minutes. She immediately informed Pastakia's family about it. The culprit was not at home at the time. He arrived at the scene in a few hours and – give the devil his due – told the authorities what actually had happened. He confessed to the crime. Only then did Dastoor learn, to his dismay, that the man who masqueraded as his friend had been trading in drugs for quite some time. He had been a member of a narcotics syndicate in Bombay. Pastakia also named the other members of the syndicate. All of them were arrested in the next 24 hours.

Another curious thing came to light during the confession: a few other suitcases, similar to the one Dastoor was carrying, had successfully performed their trans-Atlantic missions, unbeknownst to their carriers. Two of those carriers, whom Pastakia used in his prior missions, also happened to be from Air India. All of them felt bitter about having been used in a shady enterprise by a man they had thought was a friend.

Though Dastoor was innocent, the authorities could not ignore the evidence he was caught with. The evidence pointed to his being a narcotics smuggler. He was booked as such and taken into custody pending trial.

            During the trial period, he was kept in Bombay’s Arthur Road Prison, a place comparable to any maximum-security prison in the U.S. Under the Indian Penal Code, drug trafficking is a hard, non-bailable crime. The minimum punishment for it is 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment the first time and death the next time. Zaraius Dastoor, who had been an Air India pilot for nearly four decades and whom his friends and colleagues had always treated with love and respect, found himself sharing a prison cell with hardened criminals. One of those criminals was Dinshaw Pastakia himself.

            The case proceeded at snail’s pace, as do most cases in India. Then, sometime in June 1998, Pastakia decided to make one more effort to help Dastoor establish his innocence. He wrote to the authorities that he wished to make a full confession one more time, this time in court, under oath. His request was granted. On the basis of his written confession, Dastoor’s request for release on bail was also granted. It has been said that he was the first person to be released on bail in a case like this.

Squeaky-Clean Record Reaffirmed

            Meanwhile, an internal investigation of the incident had been going on within Air India. The investigation found Dastoor innocent and reaffirmed his squeaky-clean record with the company. He was reinstated in service and allowed to fly again. Everyone thought that the worst was over.

            The case dragged on in Bombay’s Sessions Court for six more years. Four judges, one after another, presided over the case during that period. All through, Dastoor’s attorneys, his family and friends, and Air India, had no doubt that, in the end, he would be exonerated. They all had the shock of their lives when the judgment was finally delivered on August 30, 2004: Captain Zaraius Dastoor was found guilty and sentenced to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment. He was also fined 100,000 rupees.

            An appeal has already been filed at the higher court – the High Court of Bombay – against the judgment. Dastoor has decided to take the case all the way up to the Supreme Court of India, if necessary. He is now serving his sentence at the Nasik Road Prison, about 120 miles from Bombay. He is hoping to be out on bail while the case is pending. He has already applied for it.

            Dastoor, fast approaching 60, is married with four children, two daughters and two sons. When the news of what happened to him reached the classmates of one of his sons at Bombay’s International School, they each wrote to the President of India, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, pleading with him to look into the case and reverse the court verdict. They are hoping to get a favorable response from their President. It is also the hope of all who had the privilege of knowing this gem of a man that the truth will ultimately out.

A Cathartic Experience

            During the 1997-98 incarceration, Dastoor had a cathartic experience. Thanks to a friend who introduced him to the teachings of Meher Baba, he became spiritual – so spiritual that he began to look at the whole experience as something positive. He has since been telling his friends that, but for his incarceration, he would not have had the spiritual transformation and he would not have known the tranquility he has since been feeling. While leaving the jail on bail in 1998, he went up to Pastakia, the man who brought him the infamy and who also happened to be his cellmate, and told him that he had forgiven him. Naturally, Pastakia was astounded.

            In a recent letter sent from prison to his older daughter, who is married, Dastoor wrote: “You must realize that spiritual life is something [that should be] lived and not talked about. It alone will produce peace, love and harmony, which we all seek to establish as the 'constant' of our soul. So, my darling daughter, please understand that my soul is truly at peace … come what may. I feel a sense of freedom within me. So I am OK and I really don't want you to worry about me."

            Those who are familiar with Meher Baba’s teachings say that Dastoor has really internalized them.

[Originally published on October 26, 2004. It has since been slightly edited.]