Cop who led probe got 2,000 threat letters
August 20, 2013 was turning out to be an ordinary day for Ajay Pal Lamba, deputy commissioner of police (Jodhpur West), when he received a phone call — one that was to change the course of his career.
The call was from a counterpart in Delhi police, who handed over to him a high-profile rape case in which the accused was self-styled godman Asaram and the victim, a teenaged girl.
The next few months brought a mix of almost relentless media attention, the disturbing deaths of witnesses in the case and threats to his family from supporters of Asaram.
Now SP with the anti-corruption bureau in Jodhpur, Lamba said that he received more than 2,000 threat letters that filled an entire sack.
“The letters carried abuses and threatened they’d kill my family if anything happened to Asaram. My phone would not stop ringing and I stopped receiving calls from unknown numbers. The letters stopped only when I shifted to Udaipur (in January 2014),” said Lamba.
He said he stopped sending his daughter to school for a while and that his wife would not step out of the house. One of the suspects held in connection with the killing of a witness in the case confessed that his next target was Chanchal Mishra, the then deputy SP with Jodhpur police and an investigating officer in the case, he added.
The victim was 16 when she was raped by Asaram at his ashram in Jodhpur in 2013. Her family then filed a complaint in Delhi, after which Asaram was charged with rape, wrongful confinement, sexual harassment, trafficking, criminal intimidation and criminal conspiracy. The case was transferred to Jodhpur.
The investigating team filed their first chargesheet in November 2013. “There was no political pressure of any kind but I felt that longer the probe is delayed, the more it gets tangled up,” said Lamba. For the police, the difficult part was picking Asaram up from his ashram while ensuring his supporters didn’t disturb the peace in Jodhpur.
Shot at: Mahendra Chawla, Asaram’s former aide, had detailed financial irregularities Acid attack: Dinesh Bhavchandni, assisted the Surat rape complainants
Shot at: Raju Chandhak, deposed in connection with the murder of two boys
Attacked with knives: Husband of woman who accused Sai of rape
Stabbed: Rakesh Patel, Asaram’s videographer
JODHPUR:
Sessions court judge Manoj Kumar Vyas, who was hearing the case, threatened
Sudha Pathak: A key witness, Pathak turned hostile after earlier claiming that she was receiving threats
Father of Jodhpur victim: Father receives threats by unidentified persons to withdraw the case
Karthick Haldar was arrested by Gujarat anti-terror squad from Chhattisgarh, where he washidingafterallegedly killing three of key witnesses in Asaram cases.