India, Sept. 27 -- The court's reasoning has to be respected. But that does not mean India's investigative strategy cannot be questioned. It should be. India should have recognised from the beginning that this was a case with significant geopolitical dimensions. That required an investigative strategy commensurate with those dimensions.

Forty-eight hours after Matthew VanDyke was arrested in India, I told a television channel that I believed he would eventually be released. My assessment was that the international geopolitical ecosystem surrounding VanDyke would eventually become a factor in the case. Today, that prediction has materialised. VanDyke has been released from Tihar Jail and permitted by a Delhi court to travel to the United ...