Abu Salem writes to cops, claims locals usurped his UP land
MUMBAI: Abu Salem Ansari, convicted for his role in the 1993 blasts case and for the murder of builder Pradeep Jain, has written a letter to Sarai Mir police station in Azamgarh district, Uttar Pradesh, claiming that local villagers have allegedly forged documents and taken possession of his ancestral property that comes under its limits.
He has asked the police to investigate and take appropriate action. In the letter dated March 6, 2018, a copy of which is with HT, Salem claims to be suffering from sleepless nights at Taloja jail after he learnt the land was usurped.
Salem claims his brother, Abu Hakim, had taken the documents related to the land from the tehsil office on March 30, 2013, and registered the plot in his name along with that of his brothers.
But on November 6, 2017, when his brother went to the tehsil office, he learnt the land was in the name of locals Mohammed Nafees, Mohammed Shaukat, Sarwari, Moinuddin, Aklaq, Aklaq Khan and Nadeem Akhtar. “Hence, it’s clear Nafees and others have, with the help of officials from the tehsil office, made fraudulent documents to usurp the property,” writes Salem in the letter.
Salem has asked for a proper investigation in the case so that the guilty can be booked. Abu Hakim, Salem’s brother, said, “We had given a letter to the tehsil office three months ago, and had informed them about the fraud. But it did not evoke any response from them. We are not in a position to fight them, so we kept quiet. Salem got to know about the issue through a relative and he wrote the letter. The local police station called me to record my statement.”
Narendra Pratap Singh, superintendent of police, Azamgarh (Rural), said, “Abu Salem had sent an application from Mumbai jail... claiming his ancestral property was usurped. After we received the letter, we conducted an inquiry and called all the seven people, including Nafees, who showed us documents that stated they had bought the land from villagers.”
“But it is a property issue and concerns the revenue department. We will inform the department and take their help in the investigation,” said Singh.