Cop sacked in Nithari case reinstated

Kaur was among the six policemen dismissed for negligence in handling the Nithari case in January 2007. Later that year,the Allahabad High Court quashed their dismissal.

While the five others joined duty,Kaur remained in jail as she also faced criminal charges of derailing investigation,accepting bribes,helping the accused and destroying evidence in the murder of 20-year-old Payal.

Official sources said in March 2009,Kaur got bail. After coming out of jail,she joined duty in Noida,said a Noida police officer.

Besides Kaur,former chowki in-charges at Nithari — Rajvir Baliyan,Kamarpal Singh,Vinod Pandey — and station house officers at Noida’s Sector 20 police station,RN Singh Yadav and Deepak Chaturvedi,were dismissed on basis of the report of a fact-finding team which the government had sent to Nithari.

On March 20,2007,the Central Bureau of Investigation,which had taken over the investigation,arrested Kaur and she was sent to the Dasna jail.

In their appeals in the High Court,“we told the court that neither was any chargesheet filed against them,nor was any showcause notice issued and while a departmental inquiry was pending,the order of dismissal was passed,” said Anoop Trivedi,advocate of the dismissed policemen.

In November and December 2007,the High Court quashed the dismissals. The state government did not file an appeal against the judgment,said prosecution counsel D R Chowdhary.

Kaur was not ready to discuss the matter. Her advocate Sudheer Tyagi said there was no evidence against her in the Payal murder case.

He added that along with her,Sub-Inspector VP Singh and Circle Officer Dinesh Yadav are also named. “Both had got their arrest stayed from the court. The court has also stayed proceedings of the case lodged against them,” added Tyagi.

Kaur has a dubious distinction. This is the second time she was dismissed and re-instated,said official sources.

The first time round,as the in-charge of the Shalimar outpost under Sahibabad police circle,she had allegedly sent an innocent person to jail under NDPS Act.

This led to protests,in which crowds blocked the road and set the outpost on fire. Two months later,she was re-instated and transferred to Noida.

“We could not say on whose direction Kaur was re-instated. In March 2006,the district police office received an order in this regard from the DIG office,” said a police officer.