Jammu, APr 30 :
Imran Sheikh, an Independent candidate from Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha constituency, has 20 cases, including one under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, registered against him over the past nine years.
This is the maximum
POCSO charges among 20
number of cases against any of the 20 contestants from the constituency.
According to the affidavit filed by Sheikh along with his nomination papers, the cases are registered in nine different police stations in five districts of the union territory.
The first criminal case against Sheikh, who hails from Anantnag district, was registered in 2015 in Pampore police station of Pulwama district.
One of the criminal cases filed last year against the 37-year-old candidate include charges under section 11 (enticing a child for pornographic purposes or giving gratification there for) and section 12 (committing sexual harassment upon a child) of the POCSO Act.
Sheikh has also been booked in 2022 under section 309 (attempt to commit suicide and any act towards the commission of such offence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) .
Most of the cases registered against Sheikh are under section 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the IPC but several of these cases have additional charges, including under section 201 (hiding or destroying evidence of a crime, knowing or believing that the offense has been committed, with the intention of protecting the offender from punishment) and section 380 (theft in dwelling house) of the IPC.
The other two cases are booked under sections 454 (offence in respect of lurking house-trespass or house-breaking in order to commit offence) and section 419 (cheating by personation).
Seven of the 20 cases against the Independent candidate have been registered in Saddar police station in Anantnag with six of those filed in 2022.