A council has refused to comment on the prosecution of its former mayor.
Former Bracknell Forest councillor Naheed Ejaz is currently on trial for perverting the course of justice at Winchester Crown Court.
She was elected as a Bracknell Forest cllr in May 2023 and was immediately made Mayor of the borough in the same month, serving until May 2024.
Ms Ejaz, 61, is on trial together with her son Diwan Khan (41). The mother is accused of perverting the course of justice, and Khan is accused of rape, charges they both deny.
Ms Ejaz resigned as a councillor in September 2024, the same month that
her son was committed for trial on September 14 at Southampton Magistrates Court.
The former mayor is on unconditional bail whereas her son is remanded in custody.
Jurors were told that the former mayor delayed police officers who came to the door, allowing a ‘mother’s love for a son to stretch to criminality’.
According to prosecutors, Ms Ejaz refused to let them into the home ‘for some minutes’ when they arrived to make the arrest.
The court heard that she ‘assisted’ her son by talking to him in Urdu, so he would conceal a device where a video of the alleged sex attack was stored.
Khan, who acted as the mayor’s consort during her term of office, is accused of spiking the teenager’s vodka with ecstasy, also known as MDMA.
Ms Ejaz won her seat on Bracknell Forest during Labour’s surge in 2023 when the party won its first majority in a generation.
She was a councillor in Great Hollands ward, where she stood for election together with the current council leader Mary Temperton.
Susan Halliwell, chief executive of Bracknell Forest Council, said: “We are aware that a former councillor and former Mayor has been charged with a criminal offence and is currently on trial for that offence.
“We can confirm that this is not linked to her previous councillor or mayoral role.
“As the case is ongoing, and subject to court proceedings, we are unable to comment any further.”
The trial continues.
