A so-called 32-year-old maulana, who lured, enticed and kidnapped a nine-year-old girl from Malegaon was arrested by police from Navi Mumbai. He was on Monday remanded to police custody till December 20, said police inspector Ajay Vasave, who arrested him in Vashi.
Mr Vasave said that Shaikh Abdul Ahmed Abdul Samad of Veera Naik chawl in Vashi enticed the nine-year-old girl from Mhalde village, bordering Malegaon town of Nashik. He kidnapped the girl on December 13 and fled. The police rummaged through his house and found ATM cards of various banks and arrested him after finding out his Vashi address.
Cases of kidnapping have been filed against Samad in Azadnagar police station in Malegaon on the basis of the complaint filed by the victim’s father. The girl’s medical report is not available yet, the police
added.
Residents told The Asian Age that the maulana was staying in Mhalde village area since the last three to four years.
They said that he was not very communicative and none
knew what he did for a living. He had a cycle shop in Vashi
and used to visit Malegaon regularly. The residents only knew that he was a maulana or Islamic scholar.
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Hc questions ‘reasonable doubt’ in mcoca
Age correspondent
Mumbai, Dec. 17
The Bombay high court on Monday questioned if Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) has a provision of permitting a court to grant bail to an accused if there is a reasonable doubt that he or she did not commit the offence.
A division bench of Justices V.M. Kanade and P.D. Kode was hearing a petition filed by the state, challenging the order of the lower court granting bail to Paulson Joseph. Joseph is currently facing charges in the
murder cases of Arif Abubakar Sayyed and senior journalist Jyotirmoy Dey.
The lower court had granted Paulson bail in the murder case of Arif Abubakar Sayyed in July last year on a surety bond of `1 lakh. However, he is still in jail, as he is also an accused in the Dey murder case. “The provision says there has to be reasonable doubt that the accused has not committed the offence. But the Act does not
define the extent of this ‘reasonable doubt’. We will have to see it,” the court said.
The court further questioned if the trial court believed that a MCOCA case is not made out against Paulson or if MCOCA does not apply here. “We will have to go into the evidence of the case to decide the matter,” Justice Kanade said.
Sayyed aka Bael, the driver of fugitive Dawood Ibrahim's brother Iqbal Kaskar, was gunned down in May last year outside the residence of Iqbal Kaskar on Pakmodia Street. Journalist J Dey was shot dead in suburban Powai on June 11, 2011.