Sacked now, this former UP cop thrived on absconding mafioso’s properties!
DIG, Saharanpur, dismissed accused inspector on January 11 after preliminary probe found allegations against Naresh Kumar true
A former Saharanpur police inspector, who was recently terminated, allegedly thrived on properties of mafioso-turned-politician Haji Iqbal alias Bala after illegally acquiring them, revealed a probe into the incident.

In Saharanpur, police inspector Naresh Kumar, 52, allegedly got transferred around 49.6 bigha ‘Benami’ land worth several crores of Mafioso Haji Iqbal alias Bala, also a former MLC, in his wife Rajrani’s name from different people between June and August 2023.
The payment made through cheques in the name of paying the amount was never encashed and the amount paid was allegedly transferred to another account of his aide at gunpoint.
These allegations made in two FIRs registered against the former inspector and his wife at Sadar Bazaar and Mirzapur police stations on October 17 and 18, 2024 respectively were found true in the departmental inquiry after which deputy inspector general of police, Saharanpur range, Ajay Kumar Sahni sacked the inspector last week on January 11. HT has the downloaded copy of the two FIRs.
Saharanpur circle officer (CO), City-II, Munish Chandra, who is the investigation officer of both cases lodged against the accused inspector, confirmed Naresh Kumar’s termination.
He said the investigation into the criminal cases registered against Naresh Kumar was in the last phase and further legal proceedings will be initiated against the accused inspector as per the findings of the investigation.
A senior police official said Naresh Kumar remained posted as inspector in-charge of Saharanpur district’s Mirzapur police station for many months in 2023 during which he came to know about several ‘Benami’ properties (properties purchases on somebody else’s name) of the former MLC Haji Iqbal, who has several criminal cases registered against him and has been facing several investigations since the BJP government came to power in the state in March 2017.
He said Haji Iqbal shifted his base to Dubai to evade arrest by law enforcement agencies after his four sons Wajid, Afzal, Alishan and Javed and his brother Mehboob Ali were arrested under different charges, including extortion, fraud, embezzlement of funds etc and languishing in jail for over 18 months now even as the state police announced a reward of ₹1 lakh on the arrest of former MLC.
After which the former MLC’s Benami properties were left unattended and the inspector decided to thrive on the abandoned left properties, he said.
The accused inspector and his family members were not available for comment on the allegations.
In the first FIR lodged against the inspector under multiple sections of Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act, 1988, at Sadar Bazaar police station on October 17, 2024, the complainant Subey Singh, who was the then inspector in-charge of Sadar Bazaar police station, said the then additional superintendent of police (ASP), rural, had conducted the preliminary inquiry against Naresh Kumar and found the allegations true after which senior superintendent of police (SSP) Saharanpur, Rohit Singh Sajwan ordered registering an FIR for further investigation into the matter and initiate criminal proceedings against the accused. The FIR was lodged under sections 12, 13(2), 13(1)(b) and 7 of PC Act in the matter.
The FIR also alleges that the inspector Naresh Kumar used his clout in forcibly getting transferred four pieces of land (around 49.6 bigha) from Shravan Kumar, Nitu Singh and Roshan Lal through the former MLC’s close aides Irshad Rawat, Mehboob and Dhanraj Singh on June 17, July 14 and July 31, 2023, in name of his wife and one Dehradun resident Vijay Kumar.
It further said purchasing so much land without informing the department is already a violation of the service code of conduct. Besides, the preliminary inquiry also revealed that ₹91 lakh showed to be paid for the purchase of these pieces of land was never transferred to the seller’s bank account while ₹15 lakh transferred to the bank account of Roshan Lal, but it was later transferred to another’s bank account.
Similarly, another FIR was lodged on the complaint of Roshan Lal at Mirzapur police station on the direction of local court against the then inspector Naresh Kumar and his wife Rajrani under Indian Penal Code sections 120-B (hatching criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating), 467 (forging documents to claim ownership of any property), 468 (using forged documents for cheating), 471 (using forged documents as genuine), 342 (wrongful confinement), 504 (insulting) and 506 (criminal intimidation).
The complainant accused the couple of threatening him with dire consequences and getting his land transferred in Rajrani’s name by putting him under life threat and wrongfully holding him captive at the police station.
Currently, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is investigating a Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) case lodged against the former MLC and has attached his properties worth ₹4,440 crore in the form of Global University in Mirzapur and other agricultural land.
