On August 25, 2023, 48-year-old B M Ibrahim was stunned when a team of police officers from Hosdurg Police Station in Kasaragod, Kerala, apprehended him for allegedly carrying seven lakh rupees in illegal ‘hawala’ funds. This poultry dealer from Kasaragod felt the world around him crumbling, pushing him to utter despair. Though he was let off by police after booking a case under Section 102 of CrPC on the same day evening, he was in utter shock when he later realised that police had recorded the seizure amount as only Rs 4.68 lakh.
However, Ibrahim wasn’t ready to sit silently on this injustice meted out to him. He decided to fight till the end to prove his innocence and reclaim his hard-earned money, including Rs 2.32 lakh which had vanished after police seized Rs seven lakh from him.
For the last one year, Ibrahim has been running from pillar to post to get his money which was seized by police labelling him as a “hawala dealer.”
“Police caught me when I was on my way to the bank to transfer Rs seven lakh to the account of poultry dealers in Namakkal in Tamil Nadu, from where I used to buy poultry for distribution through my shop BSK Chicken,” Ibrahim said.
Though Ibrahim submitted complaints to the Kerala Chief Minister, State Police Chief, and District Police Chief, he couldn’t get a proper reply. While the FIR mentions that only Rs 4.68 lakh was seized from him, the General Diary (GD) entry at the station didn’t mention any amount.
According to Ibrahim, who claims to have been running a poultry shop for the last 10 years, he was on his way to the bank on his motorcycle around 9.30 am when a police officer in plain clothes stopped him at Koyapally and tried to snatch his handbag containing the money.
“I didn’t know that it was a police officer. But soon a police team reached the spot and took me to Hosdurg Police Station. They questioned me in detail, and I told them that I was a poultry dealer and the money was for placing an order with poultry farmers in Namakkal. They made me stand at the station till 7:30 pm and released me after seizing the money. I was shocked when I later saw a copy of the FIR which stated that only Rs 4.68 lakh was seized from me under Section 102 of CrPC, which gives police officers the power to seize property that is suspected to be stolen or found under circumstances that may indicate the commission of a crime,” Ibrahim told “Open Digest“.
“If police had seized the money claiming it to be unaccounted, then they had to report it to the income tax department. In my case, they didn’t do that. They just invoked Section 102 of CrPC to siphon off the money,” Ibrahim said.
Ibrahim has also approached Hosdurg Judicial First Class Magistrate Court – 1 seeking a direction to the police to return his money.
“I have all the documents to prove before the court the source of the money. I have also filed a complaint with the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) against the police officers who were behind it. I have decided to fight till I get justice because I haven’t done anything illegal,” Ibrahim added.
