Srinagar, Oct 1: Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah is in deep trouble after a National Conference sympathiser who was described as a ‘tout' died in police custody, after he was taken away from the chief minister's residence.
Five policemen have been suspended in this connection and the chief minister's office released cctv footage to prove that he was alive when he was being taken away from the residence.
The 61-year-old retired teacher and National Conference (NC) “sympathiser” who allegedly took money from two party leaders on the promise of getting them a ministership and a legislative council seat through union minister Farooq Abdullah, died in custody after he was handed over to the Crime Branch by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, The Indian Express reported.
The family of the man, Haji Syed Mohammad Yousuf, has alleged he was killed by the police because he knew “too many secrets”.
The chief minister told The Indian Express that the police had told him that Haji Yousuf had died after a heart attack this morning. The police told this paper that Haji had died in the police hospital where he was taken after he complained of “nausea”.
The government today transferred three officers of the Special Security Group, including a long-time personal security officer (PSO) of the chief minister, DSP Shabir Ahmad, but said the transfers were not related to the incident.
But it ordered a judicial inquiry by a sitting judge, and asked the chief justice of the Jammu & Kashmir High Court to nominate a colleague to carry out the probe.
Haji Yousuf, of Laktipora village in Arwani in South Kashmir's Anantnag district, was close to Farooq Abdullah, said Haji's son, Syed Talib Hussain. “He was very close to leaders of the National Conference. He was friends with Farooq Abdullah and would regularly go to Omar Abdullah and other leaders as well,” he said. “He did not die, he was killed in custody.”
“He (Haji Yousuf) had been called by the Minister of State for Home Nasir Aslam Wani to his place, and I blame him (Wani) for this murder,” Hussain said.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said he had summoned Haji Yousuf to his residence yesterday after he received a complaint that Haji had taken over a crore of rupees from two party workers after promising them high posts. He said Haji had “admitted everything”, following which he (Omar) had asked MoS Wani to call in the police. This is what the chief minister told The Indian Express:
“Two NC workers from Kokernag and Ganderbal came to meet me. One of them is our (NC) district president in Ganderbal and my constituency representative, Mohammad Yousuf. He told me that this Haji Yousuf has taken 71 lakh rupees from him as party fund and given to Farooq Abdullah who has promised to make him minister of state for R&B (Roads and Buildings).
“The Kokernag guy (whose name is Abdul Salam Reshi) complained that Haji took 40 lakh rupees from him, saying he (Reshi) will be made a member of the Legislative Council. This Kokernag guy has contested an election as an independent candidate earlier.
“Both of them told me that Haji is not returning the money. He had returned a part of the money to the Kokernag guy, but was refusing to even acknowledge that he had taken money from the Ganderbal guy. The guy (Yousuf) had even got an impersonator to call this Ganderbal guy mimicking Farooq sahib's (Farooq Abdullah's) voice to assure him that the money was safe with him and his work will be done soon.”
The chief minister said he had asked MoS Wani to summon Haji to his (Omar's) residence so that the two men could confront him in his (Omar's) presence.
“When I asked Haji Yousuf about this issue, he first denied everything. Then he told me that he had taken a loan from the Kokernag guy. He told the Ganderbal guy that he had never taken any money from him. But when the Ganderbal guy said he has witnesses, he (Haji) admitted everything, and promised to return the money within a month and a half.
“But I didn't agree,” the chief minister said. “I told him that either he should give some property papers (as collateral) or nothing doing. How could we believe him? I didn't know how many people he had duped... Kokernag guy told me there are around a dozen more that he knew.
“So I told Nasir (MoS Home) that this is a crime and I don't want to get involved in this. I asked him to call the IG Crime. He (IG Crime Raja Ajaz) came and took all three of them away.”
Asked how Haji Yousuf had died, Omar said, “The Crime Branch people told me that he complained of feeling dizzy and was taken to the police hospital where he had a heart attack this morning and died. It may be because of the shock that he has to cough up the money.”
The chief minister rejected allegations by Haji Yousuf's family that he had been roughed up and strangled because he “knew too much”.
“Thank God my house is covered by CCTV cameras,” Omar said. “I have asked them to get the entire recordings. It will prove that he (Haji Yousuf) left the house in the same condition that he was in when he entered.”
Asked why he had then decided to move out his PSO and two other officers of his personal security staff, Omar said, “It has nothing to do with this issue. It is altogether a separate issue.”
Omar also said he had been “shocked” to discover that his constituency representative in Ganderbal had attempted to buy a ministership from an alleged middleman for Rs 71 lakh.
“It is shocking for me. That fellow (Ganderbal's Mohammad Yousuf) told me that he had taken a loan and given it to the party fund. But now I know that he had taken Rs 51 lakh from a toll barrier guy (the contractor runs the toll collection station) in Tangmarg, and Rs 5 lakh from his own PSO.”
