Mohammad Shami’s wife gives confidential statement in court
KOLKATA: Hasin Jahan, the wife of India pacer Mohammad Shami, gave a confidential statement to a magistrate at Alipore court on Monday in connection with the charges she brought against the cricketer.
After she emerged from the court, Jahan went to the residence of chief minister Mamata Banerjee to submit a written plea to meet her. She earlier told the media that she wants the chief minister beside her in her fight against her husband, whom she accused to wrecking her marriage through extra-marital affairs and attempts to kill her.
Based on her complaints, on March 9 Kolkata Police registered an FIR against the 27-yearold bowler under a few non-bailable sections that included among other sections, attempt to murder (section 307 of IPC).
Jahan’s statement was given before the third judicial magistrate. The process took about two hours. The statement is significant since she cannot go back on her words now.
Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code has provisions of a metropolitan magistrate or judicial magistrate recording any confession or statement made to him in the course of an investigation. According to the law, the magistrate should explain to the individual that he/she is not bound to make the confession and that it may even be used as evidence against him/her.
“She gave the confidential statement to a judicial magistrate. But since it is confidential, I cannot comment on it,” said Jahan’s counsel, Zakir Hussain.
On March 17, four officials of the anti-corruption unit of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) spoke to Jahan in Kolkata Police headquarters. For three hours, they quizzed her on her charges of match-fixing she brought against her husband.
Earlier in the week Jahan alleged that Shami had taken money from a Pakistani woman named Alishba on the insistence of an England-based businessman, Mohammad Bhai.
The IPC sections against Shami include 307 (attempt to murder), 498A (cruelty to a woman by husband and in-laws), 376 (rape, brought against Shami’s elder brother), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 506 (criminal intimidation etc.
Shami has rejected all the allegations and alleged that his wife is being misled by someone. The two tied the knot in 2014, about two years after they met in a party.