Sajid Sahab, who has been booked for brutally assaulting man who tried to save a tree last month, waved and smiled next to Congress MP Priya Dutt at a roadshow in Bandra on Monday

On Monday evening, at MP Priya Dutt’s rally in the slums of Bandra (West), a man standing next to the politician waved to the crowds and smiled at passing pedestrians.



Congress MP Priya Dutt’s rally in the slum pockets of Bandra yesterday

With Dutt grabbing all the eyeballs, almost no one noticed that the man standing next to her Sajid Mohammad Sahab is listed as a wanted criminal on the registers of the Bandra police – the same cops who were guarding the rally that evening. After a report carried by mid-day revealed on March 19 that Sahab had brutally assaulted a man over a mango tree, the Bandra police had registered an FIR against the man.



Akbar Siraj Khan

They subsequently arrested one of the other men accused in the case, but Sahab is still wanted in the case (‘Mumbai man brutally beaten up for trying to save tree’). But going by how Sahab was seen hobnobbing with Congress and NCP leaders including Dutt and Baba Siddique on Monday’s rally, it seems that the ‘wanted’ status is just on paper.



After this report appeared in mid-day on March 19, the Bandra police registered an FIR against Sahab (Please click here or on the image above to view the full story

The rally, which started around 4.30 pm from Patel Nagri slaughter compound, and ended at New Kantwadi around 8.30 pm, had 200 party workers participating. More than a dozen police officers from Bandra police station controlled the crowds, turning a blind eye to the presence of a wanted criminal in their midst.



After mid-day’s report on the brutal attack that sent Khan to the ICU, the Bandra police registered a case against Sahab

When contacted, Senior Police Inspector Ramchandra Dhawale of Bandra police station said, “I am aware of the matter. Based on the complaint, we have registered case against Sahab, but are verifying his involvement in the case. After our investigations are over, we will arrest him if we feel the need.”