By TCN Special Correspondent,
Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Minority welfare and Haj minister Azam Khan directed to lodge a FIR
for manipulation in the list of haj devotees.
Azam stated that 170 pilgrims were included in the list fraudulently who could not make it to the final list. “Some of them had even not applied for haj pilgrimage and still their names were included by fraud. There is a possibility that it could have been done by hacking our haj committee’s official website,” said Azam Khan.
Azam also stated that FIRs will also be lodged against these 170 pilgrims who used fraudulent means for going on their religious journey. “It is un-Islamic and should not have been done. These 170 pilgrims will be blacklisted and they cannot go for haj though State Haj Committee in future,” he said.
The fraud was detected when a pilgrim from Meerut arrived to deposit his passport at State Haj Committee. However his name was not present in the list. The staff grew suspicious and later it was discovered that his name is present in the final list available on the internet. Few more similar cases were found and after a checking it was discovered that 152 names which were in the waiting list earlier had been included in the final list. Another 18 names have also been added
which had even not deposited their forms.
“There is nexus and the involvement of State Haj Committee’s staff at Lucknow, Central Haj Committee at Mumbai cannot be ruled out. We will take stern action against anyone who is behind this fraud,” said Azam Khan. The computer and data work in the state haj committee is
outsourced.
Azam also stated that there are fair chances that the fraud has been done by hacking the State Haj Committee’s website. Since 2008, UP has adopted the lottery system using computer random generation method. Earlier it was done manually. “We will probe all the lists from 2008 when computer system was used,” said Azam Khan.
UP has declared the list of haj pilgrims on 10 May, 2012 with 36754 haj pilgrims who had submitted their forms. In a Qurrah, 25359 haj pilgrims were provisionally selected on May 15 while 11360 haj pilgrims were in the waiting list.