THE Sessions Court in Mumbai on Monday rejected the anticipatory bail application of Reshma Khairati Khan against whom an FIR is lodged for allegedly procuring an Indian passport, being a Bangladeshi. The Additional Director General of Police Deven Bharti is also an accused in the matter. Reshma Khan is second wife of Mumbai Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Haji Hyder Azam Khan.
Reshma Khan was earlier given temporary protection from arrest by the court, pending the decision on her plea. Advocate for the complainant Nitin Satpute had filed an intervention application in the matter, opposing the grant of relief to her.
On Monday, after the court refused her anticipatory bail, Reshma Khan through her advocates Milan Desai and Savita Randhe sought that she be given interim protection for two weeks, so that she can approach the Bombay High Court for relief. The court did not entertain this plea and refused to grant protection, considering the factual background and the order it had passed with reasons recorded in the order. Additional PP Seema Deshpande appeared for the government side as Prosecutor.
The case was lodged by retired Senior Police Inspector Deepak Kurulkar against Reshma Khan and state’s Additional Director General of Police Deven Bharti and retired Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Deepak Phatangare. The complaint on the police officials was for blocking action against Reshma Khan back in 2017.
It was ABI who first broke the story about Reshma Khan being a Bangladeshi National and Deven Bharti protected her by misusing his power as police official.
Speaking to ABI, Deepak Kurulkar alleges that Reshma Khan illegally entered India from neighboring Bangladesh and submitted fake documents to get a passport. As per Deepak Kurulkar’s probe in 2017, who was in the Special Branch (SB-1), ‘I’ Branch of the Mumbai Police, she was not an Indian national.
The FIR was lodged for offenses of forgery, common intention and under provisions of the Foreigners Act, last month against Reshma Khan, Deven Bharti and Deepak Phatangre.