Former J&K minister Shabir Khan (circled)
Former Jammu and Kashmir Health Minister Shabir Khan, who is facing charges of molesting a woman doctor, reached Srinagar today. He was missing for a week.
The Jammu and Kashmir High Court had ordered Mr Khan to appear before the police. However, Mr Khan, a powerful Congress leader in the state, is yet to meet the police, and is staying at a government guest house. Despite resigning as a state minister after the woman doctor alleged molestation, Mr Khan is reportedly enjoying all the official privileges including security and an official car.
Sources say Mr Khan, who has managed to evade his arrest for over a week, is insisting that the police officials should come to the guest house to question him, rather than him going to the police station despite the high court's order.
Mr Khan has been booked under non-bailable sections by the police.
The woman has said in her complaint that she received repeated calls from Mr Khan's staff last month and was told that the minister wanted to know what announcements Union minister Ghulam Nabi Azad made during his visit to the hospital where she works. Despite her requests that Mr Khan should obtain the information from senior officials, the doctor alleged, she was compelled to report to his office on January 28.
When the minister came to meet her, she said, he acted like a "sexual predator" and made "provocative advances - both verbal and physical".
Mr Khan has alleged a political conspiracy, saying he is innocent and judiciary will give him justice.