In a bizarre case, the Meerut police have booked a woman, bedridden since the past 20 years, under the Gangsters’ Act and named her entire family in a case pertaining to a financial transaction that never happened.
The woman, Alisha Begum (53) has been bedridden since the past 20 years due to multiple health disorders, including vision loss. She weighs around 130 kg and cannot walk on her own. Police records claim that she is a gangster.
According to reports, Alisha's husband Mohd Haneef (53) had business relations with a local businessman Naseem Qureshi. In November 2021, Qureshi filed an FIR against Haneef for not returning Rs 3.5 crore that the former claims to have given to the latter for “constructing a meat plant in Madhya Pradesh”.
"In 2021, investigation revealed that there were many lapses in handling of the case. There was no need for stringent Indian Penal Code sections, and it was merely a case of IPC 406 (breach of trust). Besides, notary agreement deed that complainant (Qureshi) had claimed to have entered into with the accused, also had flaws. The photos of the partners were picked from social media and were not as per the set standards," said Superintendent of Police Jitender Srivastava.
After this probe report, three IPC sections -- 467 (forgery of a valuable security), 468 (forgery with intention to cheat) and 471 (fraud) -- were removed from the FIR and a chargesheet was filed in the remaining IPC sections that included 406 (breach of trust), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 420 (cheating).
However, despite senior police officials and Allahabad High Court staying the proceedings, the Gangsters’ Act was slapped on six members of the family, including Alisha, on December 13, 2022. ADG Meerut zone Rajeev Sabharwal has now set up another inquiry.
Meanwhile. in a heart-wrenching incident in Etawah, a police constable carried his two-year-old son's body to the office of the senior superintendent of police (SSP) to prove that he was not faking his circumstances when he sought leave. He alleged that he was not granted leave to take care of his ailing wife and child.
Constable Sonu Chowdhary, posted in Baidpura, said his son's death was a result of his being occupied with police work for most of his time. He said that his wife, Kavita, had not been keeping well since the last week, and he had thus applied for leave at the office of SP (City) Kapil Dev on January 7. On Wednesday noon when he was out on work, his son reportedly crawled out of the house and fell into a pothole. The child was rushed to a hospital where the duty doctors pronounced him dead. Officials there consoled the constable and persuaded him to go back to his house in the Ekta colony. He and his family live in a house on the ground floor of a building.