BAREILLY: The highlight of Sunday afternoon in Sambhal’s Babaina was a four-seater, single engine helicopter that whirred down on a makeshift helipad just outside the village. It was specially hired for Rs 4 lakh by Mahamood Khan to bring his son Imran Khan’s bride, Nargis, from the neighbouring Mohammadpur Balini village, situated barely 20 km from Babaina. The crowd which had gathered to receive the newly-weds, however, remained unsurprised at this ‘rarity’.A former zila panchayat member and backed by the Bahujan Samaj party (BSP), Mahamood was trying to outdo his cousin and political rival Farooq Khan, incumbent zila panchayat member and former village head supported by the Samajwadi Party (SP), who had also brought his son’s bride in a chopper from Kashipur in Uttarakhand last year. Imran may have built a helipad to fly Nargis home but the big amount certainly did not pinch as his family tried to beat their political opponent in ‘lavishness’.“It was a matter of prestige for me. My son has completed his BSc from a college in Aligarh and is pursuing his masters now,” said Mahamood, who owns two brick kilns in the district.Prem Pal, pradhan of Babaina, who has attended both weddings, said, “We witnessed a similar grandeur during Farooq Khan’s son Samad’s wedding last year. It was expected that Mahamood would do something alike to outclass his political and business rival.”Farooq, according to Pal, owns 10 brick kilns. His elder son, Asad, is also a former block headman.“The chopper was hired from a Delhi-based private aviation company. It was difficult for us to obtain permission from the district administration at first but some local BJP leaders helped us in getting the clearances,” said Wazid Khan, Imran’s uncle.

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