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| Shabir Khan left free to settle issue with lady doctor | | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Feb 9: Congress MLA from Rajouri Shabir Ahmad Khan, who has been forced to step down as a Minister in Omar Abdullah's Council of Ministers on Friday, is no ordinary State subject who can go "missing" or "underground". The way a Police party has left Srinagar by road on Saturday and has launched a search operation for the man wanted in a case of sexual assault filed against him, it is clear that the powers be in the coalition government, perhaps in both Congress and National Conference, are protecting their colleague from the arrest.
Whispers are widely in circulation in Jammu, as well as in Srinagar, that Khan had been advised by some influential political leaders to hide---not from Police but from media and common people---for a couple of days till Monday when he should surrender before a judicial magistrate in Jammu with the plea that he would cooperate with the investigating officer.
If exactly the same happens on Monday, the first day of the budget session of Legislature, it has to be concluded that the investigation against the MLA is not more than a farce. Significantly, nobody in the government has shared it with the 13 million population of the State where the politician had gone after reportedly leaving for Jammu from his residential village of Manjakot, Rajouri, at 5.00 a.m. on Friday.
When the local SHO reached his home next night and again on Saturday, there was just a domestic help to receive the summons issued from Police Station Shaheed Gunj. At the MLA's official residence in Gandhi Nagar, Jammu, against a domestic help and a family member are said to have received the notice.
According to the J&K Police Security Wing records, Shabir Khan is a high security category protected person with four PSOs and about a dozen others, including the drivers and escort personnel, attached to him. If he is untraced, why doesn't the government file a missing report and launch a manhunt for Shabir Khan. By all indications, if a person like a Minister disappears from his office or residence, the State government is hand-in-glove with him. Had he really and genuinely disappeared, a missing report would have been lodged and his security and escort personnel, besides the men of his personal section, would have been detained and questioned by Police.
An all-posts message would have been flashed through the Police radio network. Ultimately, case or no case against him, it is the responsibility of the Omar Abdullah government to ensure a mainstream politician's safety and security.
It is for the complainant and the courts to think whether or not the senior Police and security officials, particularly the Additional DG Security V.K Singh, should be taken to task for hobnobbing with the accused of a serious crime and providing him opportunities and facilities to hide from the Police, media and the common public. An agency like CBI would have issued such kind of a notice under relevant provisions of Criminal Procedure Code and other laws without wasting any time.
There are reports that some senior Congress leaders are continuously in touch with Khan and they are providing him all kinds of support, including the services of a counsel. Is it difficult for the State Police to trace the "missing" MLAs' location with the help of his cellphones and the call detail record?
It is more than clear that the accused MLA has been left free to build his contact with the complainant lady doctor and try all possible tools to silence her in the matter which actually is partly compoundable between the two. Left free he could easily avail a host of the opportunities to silence the lady doctor, make the witnesses hostile and destroy vital evidences. |
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