Ahmed Bukhari
Ahmed Bukhari is the 13th Shahi Imam of the Jama Masjid, Delhi. Ancestry and appointment. Ahmed Bukhari succeeded his father, Abdullah Bukhari, on 14 October 2000 as Shahi Imam of the Jama Masjid in Delhi. On 22 November 2014, his son, Shaban Bukhari, was formally designated to be the next Shahi Imam. Position on Modi. In 2014, in an interview with "The Times of India", on being asked on his decision of inviting Pak PM Nawaz Sharif and ignoring Indian PM Narendra Modi, on the anointment ceremony of the naib imam or the imam's deputy, Ahmed Bukhari  defended his position saying, "Modi claims to be the Prime Minister of 125 crore Indians but conveniently and deliberately avoids addressing Muslims. He has shown he doesn't like us. He is the one who has been maintaining distance from the community. So, I too chose to maintain my distance." Though other Muslim leaders like Kamal Farooqi said that such acts gave the entire Muslim community a bad name and stressed that Bukhari didn’t represent Indian Muslims. Controversy. A criminal case was lodged against him along with Habib-ur-Rehman and Nafisa in 2001, after an incident on 3  September 2001, when a mob, led by Bukhari assaulted on-duty police and civic agencies officials trying to remove encroachments from near CGO Complex in Lodhi Colony. Warrants against Bukhari for this case have been issued repeatedly by the Delhi court. Delhi Police has been unable to arrest him because of communal tension for the past ten years.