Barabanki finally claimed to have arrested Samajwadi Party leader, Iqbal Mohammed, in a dramatic manner in lucknow on Wednesday evening. The arrested was reportedly made soon after the accused failed to get any relief from the lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court, where he sent to seek quashing of the FIR against him as well as a stay on his arrest.
According to reports, the cops of the Barabanki police were well in touch with Iqbal, and they alleged to be waiting for the high-profile ruling Party leader to get relief from High Court. However, as soon his the court turned down his plea to grant stay on his `arrest’, the cops moved ahead and reportedly held him here in lucknow. Interestingly, even after taking him in custody, the cops initially denied of making any arrest but after they get green signal from their bosses, they confirmed of Iqbal’s arrest in the evening.
Iqbal was taken to Barabanki and would be now produced before ACJM court on Thursday. The cops would also seek his police custody remand to grill him about how he procured the SUV, already seized by them and also get it registered in fake names. They would also grill him to extract the names of the officials who facilitated him to bring in an imported car to India without paying any duty.
It may be mentioned that district court in Barabanki had already issued a non-bailable warrant against Iqbal Mohammad, a former member of the state planning commission, and two others in connection with the firing incident at a toll plaza. The warrant was issued against Iqbal, Adil Abidi and Samar Bahadur Singh by Chief Judicial Magistrate Satyadeo Gupta, who fixed Jun 25 as the next date of hearing.
Iqbal, a former member of the state planning commission having status of state minister, and his four associates had clashed with the employees of the toll plaza on June 8, 2015 and opened fire. While Iqbal, Adil and Samar had fled the scene, his driver Rizwan and a private gunner Joginder were arrested by the police after the incident. Subsequent investigations revealed that their Range Rover, which was seized by the police, did not have proper documents. Investigations so far have revealed that SUV was registered in Haryana in a name of “whatapp son of ‘0’ (zero)”. Superintendent of Police (SP)in Barabanki, Abdul Hamid said the vehicle was registered in a fictitious name and the address does not exist. A team has been sent to Gurgaon for further probe, he said.