HAPLESS MUSLIM TOOK HINDU NAME FOR JOB

Mehboob Pathan, 50, changed his name to Jayenti Bhatti to get a job in Surat’s diamond unit. This hapless story was revealed when the poor person was killed. Having a Muslim name, he felt it difficult to get a job, hence changed his name as Jayenti Bhatti, and managed to find work in the Kapodara area of Surat in Gujarat. The episode came to light after he was brutally killed over a monetary dispute. The distraught family stepped forward to admit that Jayenti Bhatti was indeed Mehboob Pathan. In the ledgers of Surat’s diamond units, there are a number of persons leading a double life like Pathan. His son Mushtaq is registered as Mukesh and daughter Samina as Sharmila. “We would not get a job if we are known to be Muslims. We have been doing this for a long time, and we take great care not to reveal our real names or addresses at work,” one of them lamented. Pathan’s family had filed a missing complaint. Seeing news stories in local newspapers about an unclaimed body, Mehboob’s brother-in-law Iqbal Pathan decided to check. By that time, Pathan had been cremated, but the brother-in-law identified him from a photo of the body. The family says Pathan was a pious Muslim and the change of name was just to get a job. “We are too poor to do anything, but how could the police dispose of his body the Hindu way? A genital examiner would have examined the deceased,” laments son Mushtaq.