Felicitation lands state minister in soup

MUMBAI: State minister for home Naseem Khan has put the Congress-NCP government in a tight spot for allegedly accepting a felicitation from an alleged associate of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.

BJP legislator Devendra Fadnavis demanded in the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday that Mr Khan be dismissed from the ministry for accepting the felicitation from Asif Dadhi. The BJP member told the house that the Dawood associate has been engaged in hawala racket and was twice booked under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).

���Mr Khan has accepted felicitation from Asif Dadhi who is a known Dawood man. He should be expelled from the ministry,��� the BJP legislator from Nagpur (West) said during a discussion on supplementary demands.

���On one hand, the police brave bullets from gangsters and on the other, the minister who handles police department accepts felicitation from the gangster���s aide,��� Mr Fadnavis said.

The function took place on March 16 near the state government-run Sir JJ Hospital, Mr Fadnavis informed the Assembly and submitted what he said were photographs of the function, to the presiding officer. Mr Khan is a Congress legislator from Nehru Nagar, Kurla.