The police cleverly used a ruse involving security statements to apprehend Nida Khan, the accused in the TCS Nashik sexual harassment and conversion case, who was found hiding in an AIMIM corporator's flat.
Key Points
- Nida Khan, accused in a TCS Nashik sexual harassment case, was arrested in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar.
- Police used surveillance of an AIMIM corporator, Matin Patel, to locate Khan.
- A ruse involving summoning corporators for security statements was used to question Patel without raising suspicion.
- Patel initially denied knowledge of Khan's whereabouts but eventually revealed she was hiding in his flat.
- A joint police team from Nashik and Sambhajinagar arrested Khan from Patel's flat.
The police in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar used the ruse of summoning a dozen corporators of various parties after receiving a tip-off that a local All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen corporator had given shelter to Nida Khan, an accused in the case of alleged sexual harassment and conversion at the TCS Nashik unit.
Khan (27) was arrested from Naregaon area of Sambhajinagar in Central Maharashtra on Thursday. She was untraceable ever since her name surfaced in the case more than three weeks ago, and a Nashik court had on May 2 rejected her pre-arrest bail application.
Surveillance leads to key suspect
Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar police commissioner Pravin Pawar received specific information that Khan was in touch with local All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) corporator Matin Patel, said an official.
Patel's mobile phone was put under surveillance, and soon a call from Khan's phone was detected, he said.
But summoning Patel straightaway for questioning would have made him suspicious, and Khan might have fled.
The clever ruse unfolds
Commissioner Pawar then called all the candidates in the recent municipal elections whom police had provided protection, ostensibly for recording their statements about their present security requirements.
Over a dozen elected corporators of various political parties including the Shiv Sena, AIMIM, Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi and others were summoned to the security branch office at the police headquarters. Each person was given a different time slot.
Patel was called at 4 pm. When he arrived and his statement was being recorded, commissioner Pawar asked crime branch officers to apprehend him.
Corporator's confession and arrest
He was taken to the crime branch office where the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) and other officials questioned him about Nida Khan's whereabouts.
Taken by surprise, Patel initially denied any knowledge. But when Pawar himself confronted him, the corporator admitted that Khan's parents were staying in Naregaon area.
But she herself had left the city on May 2, Patel claimed.
After sustained interrogation, he finally told police that Nida Khan along with her family members was hiding in his flat in Kausar Park for the last couple of days.
A joint team of Nashik and Sambhajinagar police then raided the flat and arrested Khan.
Nashik police commissioner Sandeep Karnik also praised the Sambhajinagar Police for their active support.
Patel has been named as an accused in the case for providing refuge to Khan, officials said.
