Policemen cook up a rape, Framed witness spent 52 days in jail
NEW DELHI:5 Sep, 2006
It was a diabolic frame-up, carried out with great precision. The target was a Delhi businessman who had seen a policeman molesting a woman and refused to flinch from giving his testimony against the cop despite dire threats. So, a group of policemen allegedly hatched a intricate plan to fix the witness on rape charges. 

Several top officers are alleged to be involved in this conspiracy, hatched and executed in 2000, among them the molestor-cop, Inspector C M Dutta, two SHOs, two sub-inspectors, a couple of lawyers, a woman who played the role of a ‘rape’ victim and four more accomplices, including two women. And the victim - 49-year-old Sushil Gulati. 

Gulati’s nightmare began on August 29, 2000. It was around 10.30 pm when the cops reached his house at Rajouri Garden and arrested him for ‘rape’ in a moving car. He was pushed around and thrashed in front of his family, including his daughter studying in class XII. The entire neighbourhood had gathered, quite unbelieving of the charge. Some protested but the cops took away Gulati and his Maruti car. 

As far as the cops were concerned, they had fixed Gulati true and proper. We bring you details of the frame-up - some of which might appear offensive - only to give you an idea of how far the policemen had gone to trap an innocent and public-spirited man. 

On the morning of August 29, one Rajni Gupta, who played the role of the ‘victim’ for a consideration of Rs 40,000, reached the chamber of lawyer Mohd Altaf - a co-conspirator - in Tis Hazari courts after having intercourse with one Babloo Mandal, whose blood group matched Gulati’s. 

Altaf apparently examined Rajni and concluded that to make the ‘rape’ more realistic she had to have sex with another person. When Rajni baulked, a compromise was reached - she was injected semen of another accomplice, Sonu, with a needle-less syringe and some semen was scattered on her salwar and underwear. She was also asked to consume liquor and tobacco to get dizzy. She was then dropped near St Stephen’s hospital to be ‘discovered’.
Rajni, who was allegedly part of the controversy in which a witness to a molestation was framed, lay near St Stephen’s Hospital, while two women — Najma and Savita   allegedly kept a watch on her, and sub-inspector Narendra Kumar of Subzi Mandi police station was informed. 

He reached the spot, called a PCR van and took the ‘victim’ to Hindu Rao Hospital. Kumar, too, is now said to be an accomplice and Rajni was allegedly dumped at a time when he was on duty so that Kumar himself could take up the investigation. 

Late that night, after picking up Sushil Gulati and impounding his car, the cops planted ‘evidence’ of rape in the car, including Rajni’s pubic hair. According to Gulati, he was beaten up in the police station and asked to ejaculate so that his semen could be collected. Gulati refused. But his blood was taken for testing. 

Faced with such ‘incriminating evidence’ and virtually with every police officer against him, Gulati should have had as much chance of of survival as a snowflake in a furnace. 

But Gulati’s neighbours simply refused to buy the police story. When the ‘rape’ was reported by newspapers next morning and a time given for the ‘rape’, they realised it was a frame-up. At 8.30 pm Gulati’s car was right in front of his house — and many had seen it. It was certainly not being used by Gulati, as alleged by the police, when they accused him of raping Rajni in the moving car. 

Rajouri Garden residents approached the then police commissioner Ajai Raj Sharma. They drew his attention to the glaring loophole in the police case. Sharma saw the point and handed over the case to the crime branch and sleuths kept a close tab on Rajni.
One day a little note dropped at her house was intercepted by crime branch sleuths. It was from Babloo who advised Rajni to leave as soon as she got her money. 

Already, the sleuths had gone to Bareilly to check out the permanent address given by Rajni, which was discovered to be fake. Rajni was then picked up for questioning. On September 11, she confessed to the fabrication. 

The truth was out. But in typical cop style, the police arrested Dutta, lawyer Altaf, Babloo, Rajni, Savita and Najma but let off the other co-conspirator cops. 

Gulati himself was released after spending 52 harrowing days in jail. The case against him had crumbled after DNA testing showed his semen didn’t match with that found on Rajni. Samples from Rajni’s clothes, in fact, matched with that of Babloo’s and Sonu’s. 

Having gone through hell, Gulati was determined to get to the bottom of the conspiracy. He went to the courts seeking punishment for the other policemen. On August 11, 2006 — that is, six years later — Gulati won a victory. On that day a city court ordered the police to reopen investigations against 14 persons, including six police officers. 

The six officers against whom the investigation will now be carried out include the then SHO of Subzi Mandi, Balbir Singh, then SHO of Rajouri Garden Hoshiar Singh, then Additional SHO of Subzi Mandi Hariram Malik, SI Rajbir Singh, chowki in-charge of Rajouri Garden PS, Veenit Sony, the then chowki in-charge of Subzi Mandi PS and Dutta’s wife, Sanyogita, then inspector, women’s cell, Ashok Vihar.