Four wives who have sent UP Police on a wild goose chase

Lucknow, June 18 (IANS) Four women with no direct or visible involvement in crime have the entire UP police force snapping at their heels.

These four women are wives of mafia dons and have been absconding since past several weeks. They have been named as conspirators in various criminal cases but the police have failed to track them down till now.

Shaista Parveen, 51, wife of slain Atiq Ahmad is now the most wanted woman on the police list.

Shaista has been absconding since February 24 when Umesh Pal, a witness in the Raju Pal murder, was shot dead in Prayagraj.

The police claimed that Shaista was the mastermind behind the murder and had passed on money to the shooters.

On April 13, her third son Asad - also said to be one of the shooters in the murder-was gunned down by the Special Task Force in Jhansi.

Two days later, on April 15, Atiq Ahmad and his brother Ashraf were shot dead in police custody by three assailants.

Shaista's husband, son and brother-in-law were buried in the Kasari Masari family graveyard, a day apart from each other but she did not come out to grieve for them and neither did she attend their burial.

The STF had remained on alert at the graveyard, hoping that Shaista would come out of hiding and surrender.

It has been nearly four months but there is no clue of the whereabouts of Shaista Parveen, who now carries a reward of Rs 50,000 on her head.

The second wife who has kept the police on the run is Zainab Fatima, wife of slain gangster Ashraf.

Zainab has also been absconding since the Umesh Pal murder and did not make an appearance when her husband was killed. She is also an accused in the Umesh Pal murder conspiracy.

Stories of Shaista and Zainab being at loggerheads over property have been doing the rounds but there is nothing to prove them. Sources also claim that the two sisters-in-law are in hiding together and are waiting for the right time to surrender.

The third wife on the run is Afsha Ansari, wife of jailed don Mukhtar Ansari.

Apart from Mukhtar Ansari, her son Abbas Ansari and daughter-in-law Nikhat Ansari are in jail while elder brother-in-law Afzal Ansari was also arrested recently.

Afsha has been booked in nine cases, some of them related to money laundering.

The police have been raiding all possible hideouts of the Ansari brothers but Afsha Ansari remains out of bounds.

The fourth wife absconding is Payal Maheshwari , wife of gangster Sanjeev Maheshwari Jeeva, who was shot dead inside a court room on June 7.

Payal Maheshwari moved the Supreme Court on June 8, claiming a threat to her life. She also feared that she could be arrested after her husband's death and urged that she wanted to attend the funeral of her husband.

The Supreme Court declined the urgent listing of the plea of Payal Maheshwari and the latter, thereafter, did not attend her husband's cremation. The police remained on alert, waiting for her to make an appearance.

Payal was booked in a case under the Gangster Act.

According to a senior STF official, the delay in the arrest of these four women has dented the image of UP police.

"In the case of Shaista Parveen, Zainab and Afsha Ansari, it is the burqa which is a major hindrance. The three women move around in burqa which makes identification almost impossible unless we have definite information. Payal has also gone underground and it will take time to trace her," he said.