Mumbai, Sept 29: Home Minister RR Patil's visit to party colleague Naseem Siddiqui's home for Eid, on September 11, has created a controversy.
A TV channel on Tuesday flashed pictures of Patil attending a gathering at Siddiqui's home with people allegedly having police records and underworld links.
It showed photos of Patil with Salim Patel alias Salim Goa Gutka, Mobin Qureshi and Irfan Qureshi.
Patil, who is with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), told the channel he would probe whether the three men he was photographed with have criminal records and check why his department did not have information about them. He also said he would inquire into why Siddiqui had invited them.
Siddiqui said: “The report is a political conspiracy to target me and RR Patil. I will consult my lawyer to file a defamation case against the channel.”
The channel claimed that Patel has close links with India's most wanted criminal, Dawood Ibrahim, and was arrested in the 2007 Hyderabad blast case. The channel alleged that Patel has cases of extortion and forgery against him and works for Dawood's younger sister, Haseena Parkar, as her driver.
The channel claimed Mobin Qureshi was a suspect in the murder of BJP legislator Prem-kumar Sharma in 1994, and has cases of extortion against him.
Irfan Qureshi, who presented Patil with flowers on the occasion, is a builder who has received several notices from the civic body for illegal construction, the channel alleged.
Siddiqui claimed Mobin and Irfan Qureshi did not have any criminal records. “Mobin has been the district president of NCP's minority cell for the last 10 years and Irfan is a well-known builder,” Siddiqui said.
Siddiqui denied knowing Patel. “There were 200 people at my house. I did not know each one of them,” he said. PTI
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