J&K court orders probe after man pleading starvation collects ₹27cr

POLICE HAS LODGED AN FIR AGAINST THE MAN FOR ‘WILLINGLY AND INTENTIONALLY CHEATING PUBLIC’.

SRINAGAR: A court on Monday ordered probe into the fraudulent collection of ₹27 lakh as donation by a local who claimed he had no food to eat during the month of Ramadan and the Covid pandemic.

In a video circulated on the social media last week, Shabir Ahmad Shah of Kupwara’s Vilgam village, who is presently living in Srinagar city, had claimed that he and his family had to break their day-long fast with water as they had no food to eat.

He had sought donations to save his family from starvation.

Interestingly, ₹27 lakh were donated by people into his account within 24 hours.

Police has already lodged an FIR against the person for ‘willingly and intentionally cheating public’.

Reports said the fraudster had earlier also cheated people by seeking monetary help to save his ‘starving family’.

Reports here said the account into which the donations poured has already been seized by the authorities.

Following a complaint filed via virtual mode against the fraudster by a local lawyer, Srinagar

Chief Judicial Magistrate Gowhar Majid said in his order, “To ascertain the truthfulness or otherwise, I deem it proper to get the complaint investigated through the station house officer of the concerned police station under Section 202 of CRPC.”

The complaining lawyer has also mentioned the property details of the accused and the names of those who helped him after learning about the alleged plight of the accused.

Reacting to the alleged fraud, an NGO worker Javeed Ahmad said that people should not get emotional as some miscreants were using this as a ploy to get money. “People should leave this job to the local groups which follow proper mechanism and then raise appeals.”while scores of netizens termed Shah’s appeal a scam and sought action against him, many also defended him and his family stating that their need was genuine.