Woman’s husband wrongly held for her murder, police chief suspends cop

Woman had been raped and killed by a gang; action against SHO as well

A DAY after it came to light that the wrong men had been arrested for the murder of a woman and her paramour, Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik Saturday suspended an inspector-rank officer and sent the SHO of Kanjhawala police station to district lines as punishment.

Patnaik also ordered a vigilance probe, led by DCP (vigilance), and transferred the case from Kanjhawala police station to the Crime Branch.

Police said the accused, Jasbir Dabas, Devender Kumar and Manjeet — affiliated to the Rajesh Bawania gang — had allegedly raped a 38-year-old woman in front of her 23-yearold paramour and later strangled the duo.

But local police had, at the time, arrested the woman’s husband and his relative for the murders.

“The incident came to light on February 19, when police came to know about a woman’s body lying near a pond at Meer Vihar in Madanpur Dabas. There were ligature marks on her neck and it was found that she had been missing from home since February 18,” said Dr G Ramgopal Naik, DCP (Crime).

She had been murdered somewhere else and her body had been dumped near the pond. The next day, the body of a man was found in a drain near a canal in the area. A motorcycle was also found there. Even he had been missing from his house since February 18.

“Local police conducted the post-mortem. While they found that the duo had been strangulated, they failed to establish the sexual assault. However, they had preserved her vaginal swabs for a forensic test,” police sources said, adding that when the investigating officer came to know about the extramarital affair, the needle of suspicion fell on the woman’s husband.

However, it was only after police received information about the possibility of a gang being involved that the mystery started to unravel. Police conducted raids on April 26 in villages in outer Delhi and apprehended the accused.

According to sources, the local police had, while arresting the husband, claimed that they had recovered the murder weapon — a wire. However, Crime Branch officials later recovered a belt that, they said, was the actual murder weapon.

“After Crime Branch received the case file on Saturday, a team of southeastern range started collecting evidence under the supervision of ACP Ishwar Singh. They also revisited the crime spot to trace the cellphone of one of the victims,” police said.

Delhi Police spokesperson Madhur Verma confirmed to The Sunday Express that following Patnaik’s directions, the investigating officer had been placed under suspension and the SHO had been sent to district lines.

“To ascertain why proper investigation was not conducted by the IO, the DCP (vigilance) has been asked to conduct an enquiry and submit his report. The case investigation has been transferred to the southeastern range of Crime Branch,” he said.

Police chief Patnaik ordered a vigilance probe, and transferred the investigation from Kanjhawala police station to the Crime Branch