The wife of Mohammed Haneef, bound for his home in Bangalore after Australian authorities dropped terror charges against him, on Sunday said she believed he would not return to that country.
Speaking two days after Haneef was freed following 25 days in detention, his wife Firdous Arshiya said: "No, I do not think he will go back."
"I don't have anything against the Australian people. In fact I am grateful that they put in so much, that too for a foreigner... but I guess he cannot go back to the country."
Her comments came in the wake of Haneef's statement that he was optimistic about returning to Australia one day to pursue his medical career.
Despite his ordeal of four weeks spent in custody amid a bungled terror investigation, Haneef said: "...even after I go back to India, I might think about coming back here."
In his first media interview, recorded before his departure from Brisbane, he said, "It is just a matter of my visa to be sorted out."
Haneef, who worked for Gold Coast Hospital in Brisbane before his arrest in connection with the failed terror plot in Britain, flew to Bangkok, from where he would travel to Bangalore.
Haneef's family is organising a get-together of close relatives and friends on Sunday night to celebrate his return from Australia.
Firdous, who had steadfastly defended Haneef, said the menu for the dinner will include 'biryani and all kinds of sweets because he likes sweets a lot.'
Ashwaq, Haneef's father-in-law, described his release as a 'miracle.'
"Though he was innocent, if things had taken a different form, he would have been languishing in jail. However, it is a miracle. We are all celebrating it," he said.
Haneef's neighbours said they too planned to organise a party to welcome the doctor, who is scheduled to arrive in India from Bangkok at 9.30 pm IST.
