Wanted drug peddler found campaigning for wife, arrested

The accused was taken into custody by the special operations group (SOG) of Bareilly police and later handed over to Faridpur police who wanted him in a case for operating a gang involved in drugs peddling

Lucknow: A 55-year-old alleged drug peddler from Bareilly, who was wanted under the Gangster Act, moved around and openly campaigned for his wife contesting for the chairperson’s post of Bareilly’s Fatehganj Nagar Panchayat for around three weeks in the ongoing civic polls. However, the police remained unaware of his presence.

The man was openly campaigning for his wife contesting for the chairperson’s post of Bareilly’s Fatehganj Nagar Panchayat (Pic for representation)

The cops arrested him on the last day of campaigning on Tuesday amid resistance from his supporters and sent him to jail.

Bareilly additional superintendent of police (ASP) of rural area, Raj Kumar Agarwal confirmed that the accused Mohammed Shahid alias Kallu Don was arrested from Faridpur police area when he was campaigning for his wife Imrana Begum. He said the accused was taken into custody by the special operations group (SOG) of Bareilly police and later handed over to Faridpur police who wanted him in a case for operating a gang involved in drugs peddling. He said Shahid was arrested and sent to jail after a local court sent him in judicial custody.

Requesting anonymity, another police official said Shahid was at large for 18 months after coming out of jail on bail in an NDPS case registered against him in November 2021. He said the accused lived secretly to evade arrest and intentionally surrendered in the local court in April first week and tactically got bailed out before Eid on April 22.

“Kallu Don celebrated the festival with his family and aggressively got involved into campaigning of his wife in the civic polls. The local police remained unaware till the SOG (that directly reports to the Bareilly senior superintendent of police) got information about his movement and arrested him. The SOG was alerted when it became known that in violation of election norms, he was spending lavishly to ensure his wife’s victory in the civic polls,” the official said.

He said some other people, including a woman drug peddler also contesting the civic polls, had gone underground soon after the arrest of Kallu Don while another SP corporator with a tainted background had disappeared.