The presence of Maharashtra Education Minister Girish Mahajan and some police officers at the wedding of a niece of India’s most-wanted gangster Dawood Ibrahim in Nashik on 19 May has created a row.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Mahajan, known to be a close aide of the state CM Devendra Fadnavis, was accompanied by ten cops including four inspectors and an Assistant Police Commissioner.
Taking cognisance of the matter, Nashik police commissioner Ravindra Singhal has ordered an inquiry with regard to the presence of the cops. Their statements are to be recorded and the wedding footage is to be thoroughly examined, the police chief said.
The cops under scrutiny are Assistant Police Commissioner Sachin Gore and Inspectors Somnath Tambe, Madhukar Kad, Samsherkhan Pathan, Sanjay Deshmukh, Manoj Shinde, Hanumant Ware, Kantilal Chavan, Vijay Londhe and Vinod Kedar.
The high-profile wedding on 19 May was held at a mall in Nashik’s Mahatma Nagar area. The wedding ceremony was hosted by the family of gangster’s sister-in-law.
The wedding invitation is said to be sent out to the police personnel by some Muslim clerics.
The 61-year-old Dawood is accused of being the mastermind behind the 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai which killed as many as 257 people and injured 700.