New Delhi: A Pakistani-origin former British politician, Lord Nazir Ahmed, who has often been critical of the policies of the Indian government, has been convicted of sexually assaulting two minors in the UK in the 1970s, the BBC reported Thursday. Ahmed was himself a teenager at the time.
Following the conviction, there have been calls for the 64-year-old Ahmed to be stripped of his title.
Ahmed, the first Muslim appointed to the House of Lords as a life peer, was on trial at the Sheffield Crown Court and found guilt of repeated sexual assault of a boy and the attempted rape of a young girl in the early 1970s, while he was a teenager living in Rotherham, a town in England’s South Yorkshire.
He is to appear at the same court for sentencing on 4 February.
During the trial, it was revealed that the male victim was 11 years old at the time, while the defendant was 16 or 17 years of age. The female victim was reportedly much younger.
Ahmed had denied the allegations, but, a phone recording between the two victims in 2016 showed their claims were not “concocted”.
Ahmed, who had been born in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, has previously criticised the scrapping of special status for Jammu and Kashmir as an “occupation force” for “demographic changes to settle BJP/RSS extremists”.
He has in the past been condemned by both Congress and BJP leaders for his tweet on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Previous sexual assault allegations against Ahmed
In November 2020, the former politician resigned from the House of Lords.
A House of Lords conduct committee report had concluded that Ahmed had sexually and emotionally exploited a vulnerable woman who sought his help. While the committee had recommended his expulsion, Ahmed resigned before the recommendation could be implemented.
The committee’s report made Ahmed the first member of the House of Lords, to be recommended for expulsion.
It has been reported that in 2017, a woman named Tahira Zaman approached Ahmed, for the investigation of a Muslim healer, who she thought was a danger to women. Zaman told BBC that the two ended up having a consensual sexual relationship but claimed, “I was looking for help and he took advantage of me. He abused his power.”
In another case, a woman who did not want to be identified told the BBC Newsnight that when she contacted Ahmed for help, he allegedly made a proposition for sex, which she refused.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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