Accused’s family alleges harassment at Virk’s behest

Geetanjali Gayatri &Parveen Arora

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh/Karnal, Oct 6

The slugfest between top Gurgaon cops, Commissioner of Police Navdeep Singh Virk and Joint CP, Bharti Arora, over a rape case investigation intensified as the “victimised” accused, brother-sister duo Chanchal and Ajay Bhardwaj, claimed they were forced to move court after being refused help from all government quarters.

Karnal resident Vishal Gupta, accompanying them, accused Virk of implicating him in false cases for refusing to turn a blind eye to financial irregularities in “companies run by police officers to channelise their black money.”

While the Bhardwajs pitched for Arora, Gupta sought an inquiry by an independent agency into the affairs of various companies managed by police officers “previously posted in Karnal who were operating from behind the scenes”.

He named one officer without being able to back it with evidence and dismissed repeated queries on the same “as a matter of investigation.”

Both Ajya and Gupta failed to explain they were not related.

Chanchal said her family had been “falsely implicated in the case and harassed” at Virk’s behest though she could not justify his reasons behind the action.

“The ‘rape victim’ had a live-in relationship with my brother and has filed her complaint with the motive of extortion. Another such complaint was made by her in Delhi where she settled the issue after receiving Rs40 lakh,” Chanchal claimed.

“We gave a copy of our complaint to the CM, specifically asking for an investigation by a woman officer of the rank of IG or JCP or a woman judge. Initially, it was marked to Saurabh Singh. I insisted on getting it looked into by a lady officer and it was marked to Bharti Arora. She is not a personal friend as has been claimed,” said Chanchal, who is a daughter of a former IAS officer. Virk had mentioned that Chanchal was known to Arora.

She alleged that she was even “kidnapped from a parking in Gurgaon by cops not wearing badges. I shot a video of the kidnapping and appealed to the CP for help which did not come,” she says, explaining that she had a “half-deleted” video of the same.

Ajay claimed that he was not married to the “rape victim” who was his live-in partner since neither of them had been divorced from their respective spouses.

Virk was not available for comment.

Meanwhile, Kurukshetra-based lawyer, Kamalkant Aggarwal, said that a trial court in its order in February, 2007 in a NDPS case had “exonerated three innocents falsely implicated by the police when Arora was SP, Kurukshetra.”

JCP Bhatri Arora said, “The matter is sub judice. In every district, there are several cases in which there is either a conviction or the accused is acquitted. The SP is not the IO and is not personally responsible for every case,” she added.