SP leader seeks RS seat for Yakub’s widow, suspended

Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, August 1

Mohammad Farooq Ghosi, Samajwadi Party’s Maharashtra unit vice-president, was suspended from the outfit after suggesting that the party nominate Raheen, widow of Yakub Memon, for the Rajya Sabha.

Ghosi made the demand in a letter to party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Releasing copies of his letter to the media, Ghosi said Raheen, who was also arrested in connection with the 1993 bomb blasts, was acquitted by the courts.

“Raheen was acquitted by the courts indicating that she was innocent. I have requested Mulayamji to nominate her for the Rajya Sabha to send a positive signal to the Muslims,” Ghosi told reporters. He insisted that Raheen was an innocent person who underwent tremendous hardships after her arrest.

One of the Maruti vans from which RDX explosives and AK-47 assault rifles were recovered a day after the March 1993 blasts was registered in Raheen’s name. However, she was acquitted after the court accepted her plea that she hailed from a traditional Muslim household and didn’t have any control over properties registered in her name.

Shortly after Ghosi’s letter to Mulayam Singh Yadav, he was suspended from the SP. “He has made some irresponsible statements without consulting the party. He will be asked to explain his stand and further action taken against him,” Abu Azim Azmi, chief of the Maharashtra unit of the SP, said. An unrepentant Ghosi, however, stood by his letter. “I will try and convince my party leaders that it is important to send Raheen to the RS,” he said.