Maulana arrested for alleged abuse of kids

NEW DELHI: The police in north district have arrested a maulana for allegedly misusing his position and having “unnatural sex” with four minors who were studying at his madrassa on Roshanara Road in Shakti Nagar.

An FIR under IPC Section 377 has been registered against him. “We had received a complaint through the SSP office of Ghaziabad. Prima facie, we have enough evidence against the accused,” said Sagarpreet Hooda, DCP (north).

Four boys, aged between 11 and 17 years, had earlier alleged that Maulana Imran sexually abused them and thrashed them whenever they resisted him. A few days back the four fled from the madrassa and reached Ghaziabad where they approached the police. Taking suo motto cognizance of the complaint, the SSP of Ghaziabad, Raghubir Lal had registered a case. “The madrassa teachers used to call us inside their rooms. Four of them told us to massage their feet and forced themselves on us,” one of the boys had told Times City.

The madrassa administration, however, claimed that the allegations were an attempt to “tarnish their image”. Said Bilal Ahmed, headmaster of the madrassa, “The children are lying. They have been taught lies by someone. I am teaching here for the last two years and have never seen Maulana Imran taking any advantage or favour from the students. He rarely gets time to interact with them.” Bilal claimed the children ran away from the madrassa more than two months ago after stealing belongings of other children.

The madrassa, which is inside Alla-Hu-Masjid built more than a century ago near the famous Roshanara Bagh, has two rooms for teaching. Locals said that more than 30 children, all in the age group of 10-15 years get pre-primary and primary education there.

Imran’s father Haji Iqbal, who along with other members of the family lives in the same campus, said that his son was being framed by another group as they want to take control of the masjid, which is a prime property.