Mumbai CP Sanjay Pandey orders fresh DNA test of BJP leader Hyder Azam Khan's wife to confirm her nationality

BJP leader Hyder Azam Khan. Pic/Twitter

The Mumbai CP has ordered a fresh DNA test on Reshma Khairati Khan, the wife of BJP leader Hyder Azam Khan, to confirm her nationality. Police, probing the allegations that Reshma is a Bangladeshi national and had forged her documents to get an Indian passport, had sent her samples to Kalina Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) and a DNA report found she was born to Indian parents.

However, Commissioner of Police Sanjay Pandey, while taking a review of the case last week instructed the crime intelligence unit (CIU) to conduct another DNA test at a different forensic science laboratory. He has also asked the Crime Branch to not send samples to the Pune forensic lab that is in the jurisdiction of the central government.

It was Pandey who conducted the preliminary inquiry in the case in 2020 while he was the directorate general, Home Guard. Based on his report, the state government registered an FIR in November last year. Mumbai police booked Reshma under The Foreigners Act, 1946, and for producing forged her birth certificate to procure an Indian passport.

The CIU probe confirmed that her birth certificate was forged, but in her statement, she claimed to be a resident of Nalanda in Bihar where her parents live. While seeking anticipatory bail, her lawyer had demanded a DNA test. The Mumbai Crime Branch went to Bihar, recorded her parents' statement and found their documents, including voter ID and Aadhaar cards, to be genuine.

The samples of Reshma and her parents were sent to FSL Kalina in December and a report confirmed their DNA was a match. The CIU was planning to drop The Foreigners Act, 1946 against her, but during the recent review of the case, Pandey instructed the Crime Branch chief to collect fresh DNA samples and send them to any other state for a test, said sources. They did not give a reason for a fresh test.

"We are taking advice from a legal team as the matter is sub judice," an officer privy to the investigation said.

Test at Hyderabad lab

Sources from Crime Branch have confirmed that Pandey has instructed them to send fresh DNA samples to the Hyderabad forensic science laboratory. Pandey wants to be fully convinced that there was no connivance between the accused and those who prepared the report at the state forensic laboratory, they added. The Crime Branch officers have already communicated with the Hyderabad forensic team and will be sending the DNA samples in a day or two.

"He does not doubt the capability of the state forensic laboratory, but before making a final decision in a high-profile case, he wants to rule out every possibility. Hence he has instructed us to get a second report from another state," a source from Mumbai police said on condition of anonymity.

However, the Crime Branch is convinced with the documents produced by Khan's parents in Bihar. "We have thoroughly examined each and everything and the documents submitted by her parents are genuine," an officer privy to the investigation
told mid-day.

This was one of the high-profile cases addressed by minister Nawab Malik. He had alleged that during former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis's tenure, a Bangladeshi national was given an Indian passport despite complaints, and no action was taken under pressure of senior officers, who have been named in the FIR.

IPS officer Deven Bharti and retired assistant commissioner of police Deepak Phatangde are named in the FIR, for allegedly shielding Reshma in 2017 when the matter came to light, despite the presence of a special branch report stating her birth certificate was fake and that she was a Bangladeshi national. At the time, Phatangde was the senior inspector at Malwani police station where the complaint was filed by the special branch and Bharti was joint commissioner (law and order) of Mumbai police.