BeyondHeadlines Special Correspondent
Pune’s well known religious cleric Mufti Shakir Khan was finally arrested by the Kondhwa Police after his anticipatory bail plea was rejected by Special Judge Sadhana Shinde on Thursday. Khan, an influential and very powerful cleric from the city owns Kondhwa based Madrasa Baitul Uloom, has been facing serious allegations of sexual assault and unnatural sex levelled against him by a thirty six year old woman.
Khan’s madrasa was in the limelight recently when a case of alleged molestation of an 11-year-old boy was reported, after which two women filed private complaints in Pune courts against Khan, accusing him of attempt to murder, unnatural sex, domestic violence and cheating. The complaints were made against Khan under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 323,376,377,493,496 and 504 .
Earlier, the magistrate court at Pune Cantonment Jan 3 had ordered the Kondhwa police station to investigate the allegations against Khan following which he applied for anticipatory bail on Jan 7 and obtained interim bail till Jan 22. After his anticipatory bail being rejected by courton Thursday, his lawyer Tarique Anwar Patel applied for an interim bail to appeal for anticpatory bail in high court which too was rejected by the special judge.
On Wednesday, a seperate case related to production of forged documents related to the case was also registered against him a Shivajinagar police station. Khan had made a false affidavit in the name of victim and had produced it in the court.
The victim’s lawyer Zaheer Pathan said, “prima facie Khan has tampered with the evidence and produced fake documents in the court. H is anticipatory bail application was rejected by the court following which he has been arrested,” he said. Khan’s lawyer Patel said that his client has been framed by a vested section of the community for selfish gains.
The vicim in his reaction to the media said, “I am very happy with the court judgement, he should get appropriate punishment so that this should not happened with any other woman again,” Police inspector S.D. Pochorkar of Kondhwa police said, “ we have arrested khan and we will produce him in court on friday, ” he said.
