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The Sambhal police expunged a case against cabinet minister Iqbal Mehmood and his associates — a day after registering it on court’s order — stating that no such incident, as alleged by the complainant, who had also moved the court, had taken place.
The case was expunged Thursday night, a day after Chandausi police station had registered it based on a complainant of Advocate Nutan Vijay who alleged that on May 25 evening Mehmood’s associates allegedly assaulted him at the behest of minister and later escaped with his gold chain.
Superintendent of Police, Sambhal, Piyush Srivastava confirmed that the case has been expunged and they would file the report before the court now.
Investigating officer (IO) of the case, sub-inspector Bhavnath Singh of Chandausi police station, said, they decided to expunge the case on the basis of the statements of 10 witnesses including the complainant’s neighbour, who denied having seen any such incident. The IO said they have recorded the statements of Advocate Nutan Vijay and the witnesseses mentioned in the FIR .
However, Nutan Vijay told The Indian Express that no policeman has contacted him to record his statement so far. “I have come to know that police have expunged the case. I would file protest application,” he said, questioning the speed at which the police carried out the investigation and expunged the case within 24 hours.
Nutan Vijay had contested the recent Lok Sabha election from Sambhal as an Independent, but had lost. He said that soon after the polls were over, a case was filed against him and several others for torching an effigy of minister Mehmood in Chandausi area. “The May 25 attack on me was the fallout of that incident,” he alleged.
According to him, on May 25, some associates of the minister visited his house at Adarsh Nagar area in Sambhal and started beating him up. The accused reportedly told him that they were sent by the minister to teach him a lesson for burning his effigy and speaking against him in public. The complainant had also alleged that the assailants had snatched his gold chain and had taken away a bicycle from his house.
“After the incident, I filed a complaint with the local police, but they refused to attend to it. I sent the complaint to the Superintendent of Police also, but no action was initiated. Later, I moved to court, which directed the police on June 23 to lodge an FIR,” he added.