Former Health Minister who resigned last week following allegations of sexual assault on a female doctor appeared before the police investigators on Thursday evening. The legislator and senior Congress leader Shabir Ahmad Khan was untraceable for six days until he appeared on Srinagar International Airport and drove straight to a State guest house here.
Khan arrived from Jammu after High Court provided interim relief to him while hearing a bail application moved by his counsel on Wednesday. The Court directed the legislator to appear physically before the police investigators and if they required him for questioning, he could seek bail against surety bond of Rs 25,000. The Court directed him to remain within the jurisdiction of Srinagar until his bail application was disposed off.
Sources said that Khan appeared before Shaheed Ganj police station where the lady doctor filed a case against him last week. Soon after the registration of case, the Congress High Command asked him to put in his papers. The lady in her complaint has alleged that the minister summoned her to office in Srinagar and attempted a sexual assault in a small cabin adjacent to his spacious office. She alleged that the minister behaved like a sexual predator.
Khan dismissed the allegations as baseless and described it as a conspiracy to spoil his political career. Talking to reporters at Guest House he exuded confidence that the court would prove him innocent. “It is a conspiracy to spoil my political career and image. The allegations levelled against me are false. I am innocent and hopeful that the court will give me justice,” Khan told reporters.
He said that he was in touch with a select group of reports when asked about evading arrest for about a week’s time. “I was not hiding. I was in continuous touch with some media persons and gave my statements to them as well”, he said. He said that he resigned from the council of ministers on the instructions of party high command.