By IANS
New Delhi : The Delhi High Court Monday pulled up the Delhi Police when it admitted that the pregnant wife of a slain Uttar Pradesh gangster was not in their custody and it did not know where she was.
When Delhi Police counsel Mukta Gupta submitted that the police did not have a clue on the whereabouts of Rita — wife of the late gangster Gurbachan Singh — who is missing from Haridwar, a division bench headed by Justice R.S. Sodhi asked: “How can this type of thing happen? A person goes to you and does not return and later you say that you don’t know about his or her whereabouts?”
“I don’t believe your excuse that you don’t know the whereabouts of the woman. You can’t hurt her. We will not tolerate it,” the judges said.
“When I was a lawyer, I handed over several people to you (police), many of them have never come back. And later, you denied having them in custody,” said Sodhi, who retires this week.
Seeking permission to file the report by Nov 28, Gupta said the matter had been referred to the crime branch and a probe was on.
In a petition, Rita’s father Devi Ram alleged that she was picked up by Delhi Police’s special cell from Haridwar after the policemen allegedly killed Gurbachan Singh and his associate Jabbar Singh on Oct 25.
Devi Ram alleged that 25-year-old Rita, who is two months pregnant, was being illegally detained and her whereabouts were not known despite the repeated pleas of the family that she was innocent.
Gurbachan’s father Prem Singh said: “He called me last month expressing his willingness to surrender. But before he could do that, they killed him.”
Substantiating his argument, Singh said: “One of their friends, Ashok, who escaped the encounter, informed us about it on the evening of Oct 25 after which we went to Haridwar but the cops never allowed us to take the body to Delhi and forced us to cremate Gurbachan there.
“The police also did not allow us to take his pictures. There were bullet marks all over the upper part of his body.”
Devi Ram added: “Ashok told us that the police picked up my daughter and her husband from a Haridwar hotel where the two were staying together but they were taken away in different cars. She was later told about the encounter.
“We were told that Rita is in the custody of Delhi Police. On Oct 27, when I approached them they said she will be released soon and we needn’t worry. But even after two days when they did not release her, we spoke to the senior officer of Delhi Police but to no avail. Finally, on Wednesday, I filed a petition in the Delhi High Court.”
The police claimed that Gurbachan was wanted in connection with 27 criminal cases and was carrying a reward of Rs.10,000 announced by the Haryana Police. He had married Rita in 2000 and they have a four-year-old daughter.