Tigress T1 shooter Asghar’s gun licence fake
The more than two-year-old case of the killing of tigress T1 in Maharashtra by the city-based shooter Shafath Ali Khan's son, Asghar Ali Khan, has taken a serious turn with a Mumbai based NGO submitting at affidavit in the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court that the signature of the Hyderabad City Police Commissioner on Asghar's gun licence, appears to have been forged.
Asghar’s licence, that expired on 31-12-2016, was renewed, as per a copy of the license included in an annexure with the affidavit, on 10-3-2017 with validity up to 31-12-2019. It was on the same day that his father, Shafath Ali Khan’s gun license too was renewed by the Hyderabad City Police Commissioner.
The tigress T1, also called Avni which was declared a man-eater by the Maharashtra Forest Department previously, was shot dead by Asghar on November 2, 2018 in the Pandharkawda forest area of Yavatmal district.
As per the affidavit filed by the NGO Earth Brigade Foundation in the criminal public interest litigation no. 1 of 2019, a forensic analysis of the Hyderabad City Police Commissioner on the gun licenses of Shafat Ali Khan, and Asghar, were found to be of “different authorship” by Helik Advisory, a private firm specializing in forensic and allied sciences. In the affidavit, the NGO said that Helik Advisory “stated expressly at point no. 7 of the report that the signatures are of different authorship.”
According to the Helik Advisory report, a copy of which is in possession of this correspondent, “dissimilarities” were observed between the two signatures of the Commissioner of Police, Hyderabad, on the two licences. Based on its observations, Helik Advisory said that “it is of the opinion that the signature” exhibits are “of different authorship.”
Asked about the allegations of forgery, Shafath Ali Khan told Deccan Chronicle that the “analysis” was based on photocopies of photocopies of the original licenses. “If there was any question on this, they could have asked a direct question to the Commissioner of Police, Hyderabad to check if the licenses were genuine or not. The allegations are absolute humbug.” Shafath Ali Khan said.
“We were invited to the T1 operation after 13 human deaths. So where is the question of forgery of licence. The Chief Conservator of Forest, Yavatmal checked the licences when we went there,” he added.