Court grants interim protection from arrest to Nawab Malik’s son

The sessions court on Saturday granted interim protection from arrest to Faraz Malik, son of Nationalist Congress Party leader Nawab Malik, and his wife Laura Hemelin alias Ayesha Malik in connection with the FIR registered against them for allegedly using fake documents to seek a long-term visa for Hemelin

Mumbai: The sessions court on Saturday granted interim protection from arrest to Faraz Malik, son of Nationalist Congress Party leader Nawab Malik, and his wife Laura Hemelin alias Ayesha Malik in connection with the FIR registered against them for allegedly using fake documents to seek a long-term visa for Hemelin.

Court grants interim protection from arrest to Nawab Malik’s son

In their anticipatory bail plea before the court, the couple claimed that they were victims of fraud at the hands of the agent who they appointed to get them a marriage certificate. It was claimed that he had cheated 18 more people in a similar manner. On Saturday, sessions judge M G Deshpande granted the couple interim protection, asking the police not to arrest them.

The police have alleged that in order to convert Ayesha’s tourist visa to an Entry-X1 one (a special visa granted to individuals of Indian origin or to foreigners married to Indian nationals), a fake marriage certificate was attached.

In their bail plea, the couple claimed that in 2018, due to some social, personal and educational necessities of Hemelin and her children, she required a marriage certificate. The couple asked one of Malik’s employees to get details about what needed to be done for this, and he introduced them to a person called Vijay who processed their documents to get the certificate.

Recently, when news about the certificate being forged was reported, the Maliks inquired about Vijay, and found out that he had been arrested by the Crime Branch for selling fabricated marriage, birth, death and other certificates, which are officially issued by the BMC, to over 300 people in the city.

The couple relied on the WhatsApp chat between Vijay and Malik’s employee to prove the link.

Hemelin claimed that she was a French national, and the validity of her tourist visa was from September 10, 2018 to September 9, 2019. As the visa was nearing expiry, she had approached the French embassy for renewal. When she found out that she could get an Entry-XI visa by virtue of being married to an Indian, she hence applied for it.

According to the bail plea, the request was turned down. The SB-2 branch of the Mumbai police told the couple that since the applicant (Faraz) had not formally dissolved his previous marriage and “resided separately and amicably with his first spouse”, and Hemelin becoming pregnant, the requisition for an Entry-XI visa was rejected and instead an Entry X-Misc visa was granted from 23-8- 2019 to 23-6-2020.On its expiry, Hemelin sought an extension, which was granted till November 23, 2020.

Their plea added that on the expiry of her previous passport, Hemelin had applied to the French consulate for its renewal, and accordingly a fresh passport was issued to her for a decade. It added that as far as the Entry X-Misc visa extension was concerned, the query/requisition was directed to the FSC branch at L Ward office of the BMC for further action and audit. It was then that the civic body informed the SB-2 unit that Ayesha had applied for a marriage certificate but had not submitted any documents.