Uttar Pradesh BSP MP faces fraud charge

Lucknow, Jan 7 (IANS) Seven people, including a ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) parliamentarian, have been accused of selling a plot of land in Uttar Pradesh using forged documents, the police said Wednesday.

The police lodged the case Tuesday on the directions of a court nearly two weeks ago. The court Dec 24 asked the police to file the case after taking cognisance of a writ filed by complainant Ibraar Ahmed.

Ahmed alleged that about an acre of his land in Beenchu village had been illegally encroached upon by the accused MP after forging agreement papers signed by a third person.

'Fraud charges against parliamentarian Mohammed Tahir Khan and six others have been filed for illegally selling a land in Sultanpur (some 150-km from here),' police inspector Ramesh Chandra Dubey told IANS by telephone.

An inquiry was initiated into the case, he added.

However, a senior police official of the district said it appeared from initial investigations that the MP Tahir Khan had legally purchased the plot of land.

'We have lodged an FIR on court's order but during our initial investigation, we found the complaint to be fake. The land in question was found to be belonging to Mehtab and the MP has legally purchased it from him,' additional superintendent of police Santosh Kumar told IANS.

He said Mehtab has also been mentioned as a co-accused in the FIR. Nobody has been arrested yet.