Reshma Khairati Khan is the wife of BJP leader Hyder Azam Khan. (Facebook/Hyder Azam) MUMBAI POLICE probing the case of Reshma Khairati Khan, wife of BJP leader Hyder Azam Khan, on allegations that she was a Bangladeshi national and had used forged documents to obtain Indian passport has found through a DNA test that she is the daughter of Indian parents and thus, an Indian national. However, the probe has revealed that the birth certificate she produced to obtain an Indian passport is forged.
Sources said that while the police will drop sections of the Foreigners Act 1946 against her, they are likely to charge her under sections related to cheating and forgery. Khan had approached the Bombay High Court over the FIR registered against her and has interim protection from arrest till March in the case.
An officer said that as part of police probe in the case, they compared the DNA of Reshma with Khairati Hassan and Aasma Hassan who she claimed were her parents. “Her DNA test matched with the duo establishing she is their daughter. Her parents who are based in Bihar are Indian citizens thereby, proving she too is an Indian national,” said an officer from the crime branch who was asked to investigate the matter.
The officer added that the birth certificate that Reshma submitted to obtain an Indian passport was, however, forged due to which sections pertaining to forgery and cheating will still apply. Apart from Reshma Khan, two officials, including IPS officer Deven Bharti and ACP Dipak Phatangare, had also been named in the FIR earlier for allegedly not allowing an FIR to be registered in the case when the matter had come to light in 2015.
Eventually an FIR was registered in December last year based on an enquiry conducted by IPS officer Sanjay Pandey who submitted a report to the home department last October. The report found that Reshma Khan had allegedly used fake documents to procure an Indian passport.
The inquiry revealed that Reshma Khan’s antecedents had been a subject of a Mumbai Police Special Branch investigation as part of a wider probe into forged documents submitted for passports when the matter came to light. Pandey’s report further said that offence should also be registered against Phatangare and Bharti for allegedly not allowing an offence to be registered in the matter.
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