The state’s law enforcing agencies claim to have made a crackdown on listed gangsters with majority of them either gunned down in ‘encounters’ or behind the bars, but the wives of four dons, with no direct or visible involvement in crime, have kept the entire UP police on their toes.
The government has announced cash rewards on them after their names were included as conspirators in sensational crimes, but despite top agencies, including the Special Task Force (STF), trailing them, they have so far managed to dodge the police and remain out of the reach of the ‘long hands of law’.
Shaista Parveen, 51, wife of slain gangster Atiq Ahmad, is now the most wanted woman on the police list. Shaista has been absconding since February 24 when Umesh Pal, a witness in the Raju Pal murder case, was shot dead in Prayagraj.
The police claim that Shaista was the mastermind of the murder and had passed on money to the shooters. On April 13, her third son, Asad, said to be one of the shooters in the murder of Umesh Pal, was gunned down by the STF in Jhansi. Two days later, on April 15, Atiq Ahmad and his brother Ashraf were shot dead in police custody by three assailants.
Shaista’s husband, son and brother-in-law were buried in the Kasari Masari family graveyard, but she did not come out to grieve for them and neither did she attend their burial. The STF had remained on alert at the graveyard, hoping that Shaista would come out of hiding and surrender.
It has been nearly four months now but there is no clue to the whereabouts of Shaista Parveen, who now carries a reward of Rs 50,000 on her arrest.
The second woman who has kept the police on the run is Zainab Fatima, wife of slain gangster Ashraf. Zainab has also been absconding since Umesh Pal’s murder and she did not make an appearance when her husband was killed. She is also an accused in the Umesh Pal murder conspiracy.
Stories of Shaista and Zainab being at loggerheads over property have been doing the rounds but there is nothing to prove them. Sources claim that the two sisters-in-law are hiding together and are waiting for the right time to surrender.
The third woman on the run is Afsha Ansari, wife of jailed don Mukhtar Ansari. Apart from Mukhtar Ansari, her son Abbas Ansari and daughter-in-law Nikhat Ansari are in jail while elder brother-in-law Afzal Ansari has been arrested recently.
Afsha has been booked in nine cases, some of them related to money laundering. She carries a cash reward of Rs 75,000 on her arrest. The police have been raiding all possible hideouts of the Ansari brothers but Afsha Ansari remains out of their reach.
The fourth woman who is absconding is Payal Maheshwari, wife of gangster Sanjeev Maheshwari Jeeva, who was shot dead inside a courtroom on June 7.
Payal Maheshwari moved the Supreme Court on June 8, claiming a threat to her life. She also feared that she could be arrested after her husband’s death and urged that she wanted to attend the funeral of her husband. The Supreme Court declined the urgent listing of the plea of Payal Maheshwari and the latter, thereafter, did not attend her husband’s cremation. The police remained on alert, waiting for her to make an appearance.
Payal was booked in a case under the Gangster Act.
According to a senior STF official, the delay in the arrest of these four women has dented the image of UP police.
“In the case of Shaista Parveen, Zainab and Afsha Ansari, it is the burqa which is a major hindrance. The three women move around in burqas which makes identification almost impossible unless we have definite information. Payal has also gone underground and it will take time to trace her,” he said.