SP wanted Fatmi146;s gang links probed, shunted out

Fatmi is the MP from Darbhanga, Fazlu8217;s hometown.

Though no case was filed against the MP in 1998 as the police under the RJD regime found 8220;no substantial evidence8221; against him, the report of then Darbhanga SP, Shobha Ahotkar, had attached documents that showed the alleged link.

The SP wanted to interrogate the MP. But her report was ignored and she was shunted out.

The SP8217;s report has telephone records that show the gang from Darbhanga involved in abductions in Gujarat, Karnataka and Maharashtra had called Fatmi8217;s telephone number 24120 several times.

When contacted, Fatmi initially said that he did not remember anything but when told about the SP8217;s report and the telephone printouts he said: 8220;An MP receives thousands of calls every day. Does that make him guilty? Moreover I don8217;t attend to every call that is made on my number.8221;

The gang had called the MP8217;s number during at least three abductions in Gujarat, Karnataka and Maharashtra in 1998.

8226; During an abduction in Kutch, the kidnappers had called the MP8217;s Darbhanga number six times on August 10 and 11, 1998.

8226; In another case in Pune, they had dialled the MP8217;s number thrice on April 19 and 23.

8226; During a kidnapping case in Hubli, they called the MP8217;s residence on May 27, 1998. Fatmi8217;s alleged connection with inter-state kidnapping gangs was traced during the investigations of the abduction of a trader8217;s son from Muzaffarpur in 1998.

Amrendra Singh was recovered from Darbhanga and seven persons were arrested. During the interrogation, they said Fazlur Rehman as the mastermind of the kidnapping. Investigations showed Rehman, wanted in several cases of murder, extortion and kidnapping, had links with gangsters Irfan Goga and Bablu Srivastava. Rehman was later arrested is now lodged in Tihar jail.

The SP, in her report, said that Rehman had masterminded the Muzaffarpur kidnapping and those arrested in the case were constantly in touch with him over the telephone. Her report also said the arrested gangsters and Rehman were part of an international kidnapping gang.

8220;Telephone printouts received from Maharashtra show that kidnappers from there were in touch with those involved in the Muzaffarpur kidnapping and they had also called the MP8217;s number,8221; said the report.

Ahotkar had strongly recommended that MP Fatmi be interrogated for his alleged links with the gangs on the basis of the telephone records. Ahotkar, regarded as a tough and upright officer, was summarily transferred out of Darbhanga and her report put in cold storage.

No case was lodged against Fatmi. The then investigating officer of the case, Arun Kumar Akela, now SI in Jakkanpur police station of Patna, said that the MP8217;s name was cleared as there was no evidence against him.

Fatmi told The Indian Express on Thursday that it was a conspiracy by the then SP to defame him. He said the latest murder conspiracy too was a plot to frame him. He said the police tortured the Allan Khan, a local councillor, and forced him to name the MP.