LUCKNOW: After the arrest of Shahi Jama Masjid management committee chief Zafar Ali on Sunday, Sambhal MP Zia-ur-Rehman Barq appears to be in troubled waters. A Special Investigative Team (SIT) reached his residence on Tuesday to serve him a notice but returned after finding no one available to receive it.
The SIT visited the Samajwadi Party MP’s residence to summon him for interrogation regarding the violence that erupted in Sambhal during a court-ordered survey on 24 November last year. Barq is among the named accused in cases related to the violence, which resulted in the deaths of five people and left many, including police officers, injured.
Besides Barq, Sohail Iqbal, son of six-time SP MLA and deputy leader of the party in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly Iqbal Mehmood, has also been booked in connection with the violence.
According to sources in Sambhal police, a police team will now visit Barq in Delhi to serve him the notice. Investigators intend to interrogate him based on his call records from the day before, the day of, and the day after the violence. His statement to police authorities and an affidavit submitted in court will also be scrutinised.
On Monday, Public Works Department (PWD) officials visited Barq’s residence to take measurements of his entire property. The MP, who was in Delhi for the ongoing Parliament session, criticised the police, saying, “The Sambhal police are continuously making a mockery of law and order, and the entire nation is witnessing it.”
Barq also came out in support of the arrested Jama Masjid chief, stating, “The only fault of Ali was that he revealed the truth of the violence by holding a press conference. Such incidents will not subjugate the community. Rather, such actions will be accepted with courage. We will maintain law and order and approach the court. The atrocities will add to the courage of our people.”
Meanwhile, Zafar Ali has been booked under nearly a dozen sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), including some that carry a sentence of life imprisonment. These include Section 230 (crime of giving or fabricating false evidence) and Section 231 (act of giving or fabricating false evidence with intent to cause someone’s conviction). Both Barq and Iqbal have also been booked under the same sections.
Ali, the first member of the mosque committee to be arrested for the violence, was interrogated for four hours at the Sambhal Kotwali police station on Sunday before being produced in a Chandausi court, which remanded him for two days.
Ali had previously been detained by the police on 25 November 2024, a day after the violence outside the mosque, but was released after questioning.
In November, Sambhal Superintendent of Police (SP) Krishna Kumar had alleged that Ali had informed “miscreants” about the survey team’s visits to the mosque on 19, 21, and 24 November, which led to protests. The survey team was unable to complete its work on 24 November due to the unrest.
Another officer claimed that Ali was inside the mosque with the survey team on the day of the violence but that his information allegedly led to a large crowd gathering and engaging in violent clashes.