KANPUR police on Wednesday confiscated a building owned by Shaukat Ali, a close aide of jailed Samajwadi Party MLA Irfan Solanki under the Uttar Pradesh Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act. Shaukat Ali is currently lodged in Kanpur jail, while Sisamau MLA Irfan Solanki is in Maharajganj District jail.
“The market price of the seized two-storey building, which is located in the Civil Lines area, is worth around Rs 30 crore,” Assistant Commissioner of Police (Kanpur) Amarnath Yadav said, adding the building was purchased by Ali a long time ago.
Police lodged the case under the Gangsters Act last December against SP MLA Irfan Solanki and Shaukat Ali, weeks after the MLA was arrested for allegedly harassing a woman and setting her house on fire in a bid to capture the property. Irfan Solanki’s brother Rizwan and another person were booked by the police under the Gangster Act. Police are yet to file a chargesheet in the Gangsters Act case.
Irfan’s lawyer, Gaurav Dixit, said police have filed a chargesheet in the harassment and arson case against five persons, including Irfan and Shaukat Ali. The court has also framed charges against them.
Meanwhile, police are also collecting details of other properties owned by Shaukat Ali and other accused in the case, including Irfan Solanki.
“We sought help from the Kanpur Development Authority (KDA) and the Kanpur Municipal Corporation to find details of the properties belonging to the SP MLA and his gang members,” PTI quoted Joint Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Anand Prakash Tiwari, as saying.
It has been decided that several other high-rise buildings erected illegally without getting maps sanctioned by the Kanpur Development Authority and also raised on government land in Gwaltoli pocket will also be seized in the coming days, Pheelkhana Station House Officer (SHO) Sunil Kumar Singh told PTI over a call.
The SHO said over three dozen properties of MLA Solanki, his brother Rizwan and their associates, including builder Shaukat, history-sheeter Mohammad Ejaz alias Ajjan, corporator Mannu Rahman, former corporator Mohammad Mursaleen alias Bholu, Mohammad Shareef and Israel alias Hatewala have been identified.
All of them are lodged in different jails.
The properties identified in Jajmau, Chakeri, Chamanganj, Beckonganj, Gwaltoli and Civil Lines, which have been amassed through illegal means, have an estimated value of Rs 150 to Rs 200 crore, Singh added.
The process of confiscation of properties belonging to Solanki, Shaukat and others began on February 10 when police seized the Hilal Compound, which houses 27 flats, worth Rs 20 crore in Jajmau under the Gangsters Act, the SHO said. On the next day, police seized another under-construction apartment worth about Rs seven crore in Machliwala Hata in the Gwaltoli area which belonged to Shaukat.
On March 3, the jailed MLA Irfan Solanki’s plot having an area of 300 square meters worth Rs 5 crore in Ghaziabad and a flat owned by MLA and his wife in Greater Noida were also seized, the JCP said. —With PTI