In the wake of the recent alleged honour killing of a newly-married woman, the Delhi high court on Wednesday directed the city police to deal seriously with the complaints of newlywed couples who apprehend threat to lives.
Slamming the police for delay in taking action on the complaints filed by newlywed couples regarding threats from their families, a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and S.P. Garg said, “The Office of Police Commissioner will look into the delay in uploading the photographs and other details on the Zonal Integrated Police Network (ZIPNET) and ensure that this should not repeat again”.
The court was hearing the plea of Lalit Vats, whose wife Deepti Chikara was killed allegedly by her brother, mother and uncle.
In his plea to the court, Mr Vats had accused the police of taking no action on his complaint, in which he had stated that he feared for his wife’s life after she went missing soon after their marriage in February this year.
A data entry operator here at the Comptroller and Auditor General office, Mr Vats had alleged that instead of taking action on his complaint, the police had threatened him. He said he had got married to Deepti on February 23 this year at a temple and had last spoken to her on phone on April 19 after which she went missing, prompting him to approach the police with a complaint.
He said the investigating officer (IO) and the station house officer (SHO) of the area, instead of uploading the details of his missing wife on ZIPNET and tracing her, went on to threaten him and eventually uploaded her details on May 25 after a delay of over a month. Taking note of Mr Vats’ plea, the HC bench asked the northwest Delhi deputy commissioner of police (DCP) to change the IO and look into the case personally. It also asked the DCP to give protection to Mr Vats and sought status reports of the case within six weeks.
Mr Vats said when the local police did not take prompt action on his complaint, filed on April 23, he emailed the details of the case to the police commissioner on May 18 mentioning that he suspected something wrong had happened to his wife. Mr Vats then moved the high court seeking directions to the police to make a thorough inquiry into the role and conduct of the local police in the entire matter.
“The local police has drastically failed to take any effective step in the matter and rather made best possible efforts to conceal the matter due to some extraneous reasons and acted absolutely contrary to the law of the land,” he said in his plea.
Meanwhile, the police filed its status report in the case and told the court that Deepti’s brother Mohit and her mother Veermati have confessed to the crime of killing her and have been arrested.
The police further said that Deepti’s body has been traced in Gang Nahar at Haridwar where it had been thrown and her body parts are being sent for DNA testing.
Deepti, who taught at a primary school in Sultanpuri, had got married to Mr Vats against the wishes of her family, who were against the match due to the difference in castes.