Maha minister, cops draw ire for attending Dawood’s kin wedding

Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, May 25

While Maharashtra’s Minister for Medical Education and Water Conservation Girish Mahajan may get away with a minor rap on his knuckles for attending the wedding of gangster Dawood Ibrahim’s relative, several police officers in the town of Nashik are facing an inquiry for their presence at the event.

After visuals of Mahajan and other top BJP leaders, including three MLAs and the mayor of Nashik, enjoying a feast at the wedding were telecast on local television channels, the minister claimed to have received the invitation from the groom’s family.

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While the bride’s mother is the sister of Dawood’s wife Mehjabeen, the groom belongs to a prominent family of clerics in Nashik.

“I was invited for the wedding by the groom’s uncle Shekar Khateeb, a well-known community leader, who has organised health camps on a number of occasions,” Mahajan told reporters.

The minister is said to have told Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis that Khateeb had worked with the authorities in maintaining communal harmony in the district, sources said.

The minister told reporters that he had discovered the bride’s links with Dawood Ibrahim only the day after the wedding.

With the opposition Congress party demanding action against Mahajan, the minister alleged that even leaders from the opposition parties were in attendance.

However, the police department has set up an inquiry against an Assistant Commissioner of Police and nine others for attending the wedding.

Their statements were also being recorded, police sources said.

Police sources said there is so far no confirmation that any member of the Dawood Ibrahim gang had attended the wedding.

The Congress party has hit out at the state government for not taking action against Mahajan.

“The policemen may have gone to get some information on the guests attending the wedding. But there is no reason for the minister and other BJP MLAs to be there. The minister must step down and an inquiry needs to be ordered into this,” Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam said.