Former Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) Minister Yakub Quershi and his son Imran were arrested on January 6, 2023, from the Chandni Chowk police station area of Delhi. They have been arrested on the charges of running an illegal meat business. Yakub Qureshi was a Minister in Mayawati-led Uttar Pradesh Government. During the regime of BSP, Qureshi was considered as an influential person. Yaqub and his son Imran were dwelling in Delhi in a rented house.
Yakub Quershi has been charged with running an illegal meat processing factory Al Fahim Meatex Private Limited, in Allipura Village on Meerut-Hapur road.
On March 30, 2022, police raided Al-Faheem Meatex Private Limited in Allipura village where an illegal meat processing business was going on. During the raid, police recovered 2,460 Kilograms of meat worth five crores and an FIR was registered against 17 people including Yakub Qureshi, his wife Sanjeeda Begum and sons Imran and Firoz.
Meerut police disclosed that the father-son duo was apprehended with the support of Delhi Police. IG Meerut Range had announced a cash reward of 50,000 on the arrest of the father-son duo. A case was registered against them under the Gangsters Act and the Indian Penal Code.
Kharkhauda police station registered a case on March 10, 2023, against Yakub Quershi, his wife Sanjeeda Begum, his sons Imran and Feroz Quershi, and 18 others. Police announced a cash reward of Rs 25000 for the information about their hideouts. Police doubled the cash prize to Rs 50, 000 as they managed to hide for the last nine months. Yakub’s son Feroz Qureshi was arrested from Ghaziabad in November 2022 for supplying substandard meat.
On April 6, 2022, the Meerut administration also closed Yakub Qureshi’s My City Hospital on Hapur Road in Meerut. The hospital was operating its business without government registration. The hospital runs its operations under the Yakub Educational Trust.
Meerut district CMO Dr Akhilesh Mohan said, “The registration of this hospital has not been renewed since 2019. Notices were also sent to the hospital several times. No response was given despite repeated notices being sent. So, the action was taken.”
Haji Yakub Quershi has made headlines in 2006 when he announced a prize of Rs 51 crore for beheading the cartoonists of France-based publication Charlie Hebdo for publishing a cartoon of Prophet Mohammad. Qureshi was also involved in attacking environmental activists who started a campaign to ban meat factories to save the environment.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Yakub Qureshi contested from Meerut in Uttar Pradesh and lost to BJP MP Rajendra Agarwal by a thin margin. He was a Minister in the 2007 BSP Government in Uttar Pradesh.
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