The Kanpur police have arrested a man named Mohammed Faiz, who was accused by the family of a minor Hindu girl of molesting her and threatening her with a Shraddha-like fate. The arrest came amid high drama, as when the police reached Faiz’s house, his family members attacked the team.
Shraddha Walkar was killed in May 2022 by her live-in partner Aaftab Ameen Poonawalla, who chopped her body in 35 pieces to store it in a large refrigerator he bought for the purpose. He disposed of the body over the next two weeks.
The Kanpur case
As per a report by Dainik Bhaskar, Faiz met the 17-year-old girl and her family in train when they were on their way to Ajmer Sharif last year (2021).
The victim’s father told Navbharat Times that his daughter had been ill for more than a year, and on someone’s suggestion that he must take her to Ajmer Sharif, which is a grave in Rajasthan’s Ajmer city of Muslim saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, he made the journey. Faiz was a co-passenger in the train.
Faiz later connected with his daughter on social media. They exchanged their contact numbers.
The two began talking, and Faiz clicked some pictures with her. Later, he started blackmailing her using those pictures. The girl told everything to her family.
The family filed a police case against Faiz at Naubasta police station on 3 May 2022 (Rashtra Jyoti could not access details of the FIR as it is not uploaded on the UP police’s website).
With an out-of-court settlement where the accused and his family assured the girl’s family thahe would not pursue her in the future, the investigation was closed.
Contrary to what was promised, the accused, began following the minor on her way to school and passed vulgar comments.
When the girl revealed this to her family, they filed another case at the police station. This case was registered by the victim’s family at Naubasta police station on 16 October 2022 under relevant sections of the POCSO Act.
The police failed to arrest Faiz after this case, and he began threatening the victim. After the Shraddha murder case to light in the second week of November, he threatened the girl with a fate similar to Shraddha.
The girl’s father further told the media that on 25 November, Faiz reached their house and cut his vein with a blade in front of them. He said he wanted to marry their daughter. He threatened them by saying that either he would kill himself or kill their daughter if that didn’t happen. He said that if they wanted live peacefully, they must allow him to marry their daughter.
The family stopped sending their daughter to school.
On 25 November, the family filed yet another case (number 729/2022) at Naubasta police station.
As per reports, Faiz was constantly changing his mobile numbers and it was difficult to track him.
But on 26 November, the police tracked his location as Gandhi park area. The teams reached there to arrest him. As per a press note by the police, his family resisted it violently.
The police
The Police station in-charge at the Naubasta police station, Sanjay Pandey, told the media, “A family living at Kidwai Nagar Y-1 block, accused Mohammad Faiz, a resident of Gandhi park area in Chamangaj, of molesting their daughter. It was alleged that Faiz used to follow their daughter on her way to school.”
The officer added that as per the family, Faiz said he would marry their daughter only, even if it meant killing everyone in their family. He said if they dared stop him he would chop their daughter like Shraddha and throw her pieces in the forest.
The Kanpur police posted a video statement through their official Twitter handle. In the video, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Abhishek Kumar Pandey, is seen saying that after Faiz threatened the victim’s family post FIR, registered on 16 October, the police instituted a fresh case against him. He also informed that they had arrested the accused.
He also told media that accused Faiz is a history-sheeter. He has many cases registered under sections of the POCSO Act in his name.
In this case, Faiz was booked under IPC sections 354, 354D (assault), 506 (criminal intimidation) and sections 7 and 8 of the POCSO Act in November.
As per a press note posted by the Naubasta police station on their official Twitter handle, they tracked the accused Faiz at the Gandhi Park area in Chamanganj on 26 November 2022. When the team reached the spot to nab the accused, his family members began protesting.
In a rush to defend the accused, one of the women standing in protest fell on the ground.
Media reports say that when the accused and his family saw a police vehicle in front of their house, they intentionally sent the women out. Then a large crowd gathered.
Police teams from Chamanganj, Bekanganj and other police stations had to be called in.
Faiz was presented before the magistrate on 27 November and sent to judicial custody.
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