A 27-year-old woman involved in the murder of Delhi Police Head Constable Ratan Lal in the northeast Delhi riots has been arrested by Delhi Police. The woman had been in hiding for the past two years. She was arrested in Noida, where she was working as a customer care executive.
Delhi Police have also announced a reward of ₹50,000 for her arrest. Police said she was changing her accommodation frequently and was not using her mobile phone.
Police said she has confessed that she was a part of an anti-CAA protest in February 2020.
Ratan Lal was trapped in the crowd of stone pelters and attackers while he was controlling them. His post-mortem report said he died of a bullet injury.
Lal was among those 53 persons who were killed during the riots that triggered during the anti-CAA protest in Delhi. He was later awarded the Police Medal for Gallantry posthumously.
The police, in its charge sheet, named 17 persons in connection with the case. This woman was among the accused.
“The operations wing of the North East district has been working hard to trace the whereabouts of the absconding accused in the HC Ratan Lal murder case for a long time but was not getting any specific leads,” said DCP (northeast Delhi) Sanjay Kumar Sain.
During technical surveillance, it was found that the mobile number of the accused was not in use, but on thorough analysis of the CDR, one mobile number of her close relative was found to be frequently calling the customer care number of a particular company situated in Noida, which created the suspension.
Based on the inputs received, human sources were deployed and a round-the-clock, close watch in the areas near the locations of both mobile numbers was mounted. The dedicated efforts by the police team led to clues and on October 13, a trap was laid near the area of Cogent building in Sector-63, Noida.
In a brief interrogation, she confessed to her crime and disclosed that during riots in February 2020 she had been actively involved in protests against CAA/NRC. Subsequently, she was named as an accused in the murder case of HC Ratan Lal. She has since fled her home and has been residing in various rented accommodations in order to avoid the police. During this time, she married someone who arranged for her to work as a customer service executive for a Noida-based company.
She further revealed that she never used her mobile phone and used only internet calling through apps. She had been using the customer care number to contact her relatives and family members.