On directions of the high court, the Nirmal Nagar police station recently formed a special investigative team under the supervision of divisional assistant commissioner and police inspector (crime) to find the 15-year-old son of a whistleblower who was allegedly kidnapped last year in August.
The 42-year-old whistleblower Mohammad Shaukat works as a clerk with the Railways and had lodged a complaint last year against his society members of Shastri Colony in the Golibar area of Santa Cruz (east) alleging that they are trying to illegally acquire houses under the SRA scheme.
The complaint led to Mhada ordering their vigilance team to look into the matter. Incidentally, later in the year, Shaukat’s son Shaikh Mohammad Sajeed Mohammad went missing from near their residence on August 1, 2012. He was a student of Cardinal Gracias High School, Bandra (east).
An inconsolable Shaukat ran from pillar-to-post for nearly a month and finally managed to register a kidnapping case with the Nirmal Nagar police station on September 29 alleging that five of the society members had kidnapped his son to settle scores with him.
The Nirmal Nagar police then arrested the society members named in the FIR. However, investigations revealed that they were not behind the kidnapping. Further complicating the case was the fact that the arrested accused turned around and claimed that Shaukat was making false allegations against them due to a personal dispute.
Replying to a writ petition filed by Shaukat, last month on April 29, the judge ordered ACP G.T. Padwal to form an SIT to find the victim.