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Kashmir boy who ‘returned’ after 20 years an imposter

The police on Monday arrested a man who had claimed to have belonged to a family in north Kashmir, and had been missing since 1990, reports Ahiq Hussain.

Updated on: Mar 8, 2010, 23:37:14 IST
Hindustan Times | By , Srinagar
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The police on Monday arrested a man who had claimed to have belonged to a family in north Kashmir, and had been missing since 1990.

HT Image
HT Image

The family has accused the man of cheating by impersonation.

The police identified the alleged imposter as Abdul Majeed Dar, a resident of Baramulla district, 30 km north of Srinagar.

The man claimed he was the missing son of Ghulam Hassan Dar, a resident of Rafiabad town, 75 km north of Srinagar.

He stayed with Ghulam Hassan Dar and his family for a few days this month in Srinagar, and after questioning him, the family came to the conclusion that he was not Dar’s son who had been missing for the past 20 years.

Ghulam Hassan Dar’s son Javaid Ahmad was eight years old when he was picked up by “unknown persons” near his uncle’s residence on October 3, 1990, in Rajbagh, Srinagar. All these years the family has been alleging that the security forces abducted the boy.

“This person is not Javaid. He is a fraud. We have registered a case against him,” said Suhail Ahmad, station house officer (SHO) of the Rajbagh police station, where the missing report on Javaid had been filed. “There will be more arrests,” he said.

The SHO said that the police were looking at the motive behind the alleged impersonation.

“Apparently, it was done for money. But the family to which he claimed to belong is an average middle-class one,” he said.

The family demanded that the government enquire into the fraud.

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