Malabar Hill police are investigating how Byram Jeejeebhoy, who holds a US citizenship, obtained an Indian voter identity card
By Abhijit Sathe & Manoj R Nair / Mumbai Mirror
Byram Jeejeebhoy, great-grandson of Mumbai’s best-known philanthropist, Sir Jamshedji Jeejeebhoy, was detained at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport on Wednesday following a lookout notice issued against him by Malabar Hill police station.
Sixty-year-old Byram Jeejeebhoy, who holds a US citizenship, was booked in August this year for cheating and violating the Representation of the People Act. According to a complaint from the Special Branch, Jeejeebhoy had obtained a voter identity card in India. As a US citizen, he is not entitled to do so.
According to police sources, Jeejeebhoy was allegedly unavailable for police investigations as he was in the United Kingdom for medical treatment.
As a result, a lookout notice was issued at all major airports in India on the request of the Malabar Hill police station.
On Wednesday, Jeejeebhoy was detained at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport immigration counters on his way back from the UK. The immigration department informed the Malabar Hill police, who took him into custody.
However, the Malabar Hill police did not arrest Jeejeebhoy as is customary in such cases.
Instead, he was asked to appear before the police along with documents in his defence.
“We have served him a notice advising him to appear for investigations along with documents in his defence. We don’t know if he did it (obtained voter identity card) deliberately, or someone has framed him in the case,” Malabar Hill police station senior inspector S K Gaikwad told Mumbai Mirror.
Jeejeebhoy is involved with numerous Parsi charities, including the Jeejeebhoy Dadabhoy Agiary in Colaba where he is a trustee.
Other institutions run by the family include Byramjee Jeejeebhoy School, Nanabhoy Jeejeebhoy Charity Trust amd Byramjee Jeejeebhoy Medical College in Pune. He had once contested elections to the Bombay Parsi Panchayat. The family is also one of the biggest landowners in the city.
When contacted, Byram Jeejeebhoy declined to comment on the issue.
Jeejeebhoy stays in Gamdevi, in south Mumbai, and holds a US passport. The Special Branch of Mumbai police, which keeps a tab on foreign nationals, found that Jeejeebhoy had obtained a voter identity card in India although as a foreign national, he was not entitled to.
On the basis of the complaint from Special Branch, the Malabar Hill police registered a case of cheating (Section 417 of IPC) and cheating by impersonation (Section 419 of IPC), besides under Section 31 of the Representation of the People Act.