Mumbai: Former AIMIM MP from Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar, Imtiaz Jaleel, has lodged a complaint with Maharashtra’s director general of police (DGP) Rashmi Shukla, alleging that police officials in the district are framing him in false cases under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act at the behest of his political rivals.
In his letter dated September 19, Jaleel claimed that two false atrocity cases were registered against him — the first during the 2024 assembly election and the second soon after — under pressure from Mahayuti ministers Atul Save and Sanjay Shirsat, who hail from the same district. Both leaders, he alleged, used their influence to damage his political career and shield themselves from corruption charges.
Jaleel, who served as Aurangabad Central MLA from 2014 to 2019 and later as Aurangabad MP until 2024, said the first case was registered on polling day in November. “I fought the assembly election against Save and lost by just 1,700 votes. Around 5pm, I received a call from my supporters that at the Shivaji Nagar booth there were hundreds of people indulging in bogus voting. I rushed there and stopped the group, which was led by a BJP leader. The next day, a case was registered against me alleging that I used a derogatory word for Dalits. I never even heard that word in my life before. Yet, the police went ahead and filed a chargesheet,” Jaleel said.
The second case, he said, was registered after he held a press conference exposing alleged irregularities by Shirsat in a land deal. “The word Harijan was read out from the revenue document of the land owner while I was summarising the scam. I did not say it on my own. But when the minister realised that I was not budging from exposing his corruption, he put up 60 hoardings and banners worth ₹1.5 crore and even organised a morcha of Dalits, accusing me of insulting the scheduled caste community. Now the police want me to record my statement and have informally assured me they will nullify the case with a ‘B Summary’. But I want to take this case to its logical end and teach a lesson to those officers who are dancing to the tunes of their political bosses,” Jaleel alleged.
{{/usCountry}}The second case, he said, was registered after he held a press conference exposing alleged irregularities by Shirsat in a land deal. “The word Harijan was read out from the revenue document of the land owner while I was summarising the scam. I did not say it on my own. But when the minister realised that I was not budging from exposing his corruption, he put up 60 hoardings and banners worth ₹1.5 crore and even organised a morcha of Dalits, accusing me of insulting the scheduled caste community. Now the police want me to record my statement and have informally assured me they will nullify the case with a ‘B Summary’. But I want to take this case to its logical end and teach a lesson to those officers who are dancing to the tunes of their political bosses,” Jaleel alleged.
{{/usCountry}}He added that his persistent opposition to corruption by the two ministers had made him a target. “Police officers are being pressured to register statements before the assistant commissioner of police. These politically motivated actions damage the reputation of the police force. I will not deter from my resolve to expose the corruption and misdeeds by these ruling party leaders,” he wrote in his complaint to the DGP.
Jaleel further said he was prepared to face any lawful action if there was truth in the allegations and urged Shukla to conduct an impartial inquiry into the cases.
Reacting to the charges, Shirsat dismissed Jaleel’s claims. “The complainant is an RPI (A) worker and he lodged a complaint about Jaleel using a derogatory word which is banned by the Supreme Court. I have been in public life for more than 40 years and have never harassed anybody out of political vendetta,” the Shiv Sena minister said.
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