HYDERABAD: The police seem to have no idea about five men named as accused in the FIR copy in the Diwali night poker case at Begumpet police. The accused number 5, or A5, is listed as Abdul Ali Gilani with a phone number, whereas the person answering the phone claims to be one Ali Baig from Mumbai.
The FIR of the case, a copy of which is in possession of Deccan Chronicle, named Aravind Agarwal as A1, and Jaffar Yousuf, Siddhart Agarwal, Bhageria Suryakanth and Abdul Ali Gilani as other accused men with a serial number and phone numbers with addresses.
When contacted, Suryakanth, A4 in the case as per the FIR, said he did not even know that he was listed as an accused in the case and was never arrested. “I went to the party but was not even present in the poker game area. I was in a different area and left along with others. Nobody contacted me or arrested me,” he said. When asked about how his name, address and phone number ended up in the FIR, he said that cops who raided the place had taken down the details of everyone present in the party. “They asked me for my phone number and address and I gave the same as everyone,” he said.
When quizzed about the discrepancies, the Begumpet police said that was how accused men would respond to journalists’ calls.
Meanwhile, the FIR states that on November 5, the police received credible information that some people were playing poker on the terrace of Maruthi Basera Apartments in Begumpet and that they had informed the same to the superior officers before conducting the raid along with the task force police. “We rushed to the spot at 1:45 am with the assistance of the task force, north zone and found five members playing poker game. We conducted search proceedings under section 168 of CrPC and on enquiry, they revealed their names and details as Arvind Agarwal, 52, Jaffar Yousuf, 61, Siddharat Agarwal, 38, Bhageria Suryakanth, 53, and Abdul Ali Gilani, 69. We further recorded the confessional statement cum seizure panchnama as Arvind Agarwal invited guests on Diwali festival day and arranged a get together party. About 85 persons attended the party and most of them left at the time of the raid. Later, the five persons were playing poker game,” read the FIR under the ‘content of the complaint’ column.
