POLITICIAN CHARGED FOR HARASSING DAUGHTER

ESCORTED.....Anis Qureshi is escorted by a policeman after being booked for sexual harassment.

A 17-year-old girl in Mumbai, India, has filed a formal complaint against her politician father for making vulgar advances on her over the past one-and-a-half years.

The father, Anis Qureshi, 38, is a small-time politician and is the president of the minority cell of a national party. He has been placed under judicial custody after the girl lodged a police report.

She told the police that her father had been showing her obscene photographs stored in his camera. He had also allegedly been getting physically too close to her while no one else is at home.

The girl was accompanied by her friends when filed her complaint, according to local newspaper reports.

"Qureshi has been showing her obscene photographs on his camera; he even tried coming close to her on several occasions, the victim has stated in her complaint," said an officer from Vartak Nagar police station.

SWEARING....Qureshi's wife Shabina swearing on the Quran in front of media to prove that the allegations made by their daughter were baseless

The teenager's mother, Shabina, however, came out strongly in support of her husband.

She said the allegations made by her daughter were baseless. She claimed that the girl's boyfriend, who belongs to a different caste, had influenced her daughter.

"Almost a month ago, we had caught our daughter indulging in obscene chats with her boyfriend. When we scolded her, she got upset and disappeared from the house for two days."

"Since we are against her relationship with the boy, she has come up with such allegations in order to threaten us," said Shabina, who spoke to the media outside the Thane court, holding a Quran in her hand to show that she was speaking the truth.

"Qureshi has been showing her obscene photographs on his camera; he even tried coming close to her on several occasions, the victim has stated in her complaint," said an officer from Vartak Nagar police station.

Qureshi has been charged with assault or criminal force on woman with intent to outrage her modesty and 509 with using words, gestures or acts intended to insult the modesty of a woman. (Agencies)