Cops clueless if MLA\'s sticker on SUV is crime

HYDERABAD: The case involving an SUV with an MLA sticker belonging to TRS Bodhan MLA Shakir Aamir Mohammed that caused an accident on last Thursday, resulting in the death of an infant in the city, is getting curiouser by the day. This, even as Kajal Chouhan, whose baby was killed in the accident, lies in a private hospital in Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, recovering from a ruptured urinary bladder and pelvis broken in four places.

On March 17, the SUV hit Kajal, who used to sell balloons on Road No. 45 Jubilee Hills, at 8.30 pm along with two others. The accident resulted in her getting injured and her two-month-old baby Ranveer Chouhan’s death. The vehicle had an ’MLA’ sticker pasted on its windscreen.

The police later said one Syed Afnan Ahmed, 19, a first-year student, was driving the vehicle at the time of the accident, and that he was arrested after he surrendered himself. Two others, including the MLA's son Raheel Aamir, were in the vehicle.

The SUV is registered on the name of a private construction firm. Inquiries with the police revealed that the investigating officials are yet to find out if a vehicle registered to a private firm can be given an MLA sticker to be pasted on it.

A senior police officer of the city’s west zone, a full five days after the accident, said that they were yet to cross-check if using the MLA sticker in this fashion was a violation of the rules.

Also, there is total confusion with respect to how Kajal Chouhan, who was admitted to NIMS in the city, suddenly disappeared and resurfaced in a critical condition at a private hospital in Ahmednagar, Maharashtra.

According to Kajal's father Suresh Khale, who spoke to Deccan Chronicle, a small group of policemen, along with a couple of others who claimed to be representing the TRS MLA, went to NIMS where his daughter was admitted and asked them to leave the city.

Asked how this was allowed to happen, Jubilee Hills police officials who are probing the case said that they had “no idea” when and how the family left the hospital. The management of NIMS informed the Panjagutta police that the family left against their medical advice, an official said.

Meanwhile, the police said they were yet to contact TRS MLA Shakil Aamir Mohammed, to whom the MLA sticker belonged, but added that a clean chit was given to the MLA's son Raheel Amir who was in the SUV since he was not the driver.

Interestingly, MLA Shakir Aamir, soon after the accident, put out a selfie video from Dubai, and clarified that the car belonged to his cousin. He claimed that he occasionally used the SUV and that was why the vehicle had the MLA sticker.