Shrine pillage: Malda MPs move court

IN COURT
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Kolkata: Fearing arrest in connection with the Malda shrine pillage case, Congress MPs, Abu Hasem Khan Chowdhury and Mousam Noor, moved high court on Tuesday seeking anticipatory bail. The move comes after the Malda police started a criminal case against the duo for allegedly pillaging a religious shrine, Piranapir Dargah, in Englishbazar. The Congress leaders have been charged with rioting, looting money, assault and preventing government servants from performing their duties, some of which fall under non-bailable sections of IPC. The Congress MPs, however, denied their involvement in the fracas. Claiming to have been falsely implicated in the case, Chowdhury and Noor said in the petition that the religious shrine situated in Kazigram is run by a society, Ainaye Hind Committee. Deceased Congress leader Rubi Noor, sister of Abdul Ghani Khan Chowdhury, was the president of the society. After her demise, Abu Hasem became its president on July 15, 2009, while Noor became a member of the committee. The petitioners claimed that the offerings of the devotees at the dargah were not being properly accounted for and the funds were not being used for its maintenance. In view of that, the committee took a resolution to collect the funds and the offerings by the devotees in a separate bank account. Even after noticing wrongful acts by some ‘unscrupulous elements’, the MPs urged the local police for safety and security of the committee members. But, they alleged, the police remained mute spectator and allowed those elements to squander away the dargah funds. The petitioners alleged that Shenaz Quadri, a member of the ruling party, was instrumental in coaxing the police to initiate a false criminal case against them. They stated that Jayanta Lodh Chowdhury, a sub-inspector of the Englishbazar PS, lodged a suo motu complaint against the MPs. The petitioners pleaded that they had collected the money from the dargah pursuant to a valid resolution of the committee dated August 20, 2009, for depositing it in a separate bank account to be operated by a treasurer of the committee in order to prevent pilferage of funds and offerings by unauthorised persons.