Dowry harassment caught on camera

Ex-ACP of Delhi police claims relatives of his daughter's former fiance harassing them. Uses spycam to capture them admitting to their wrongdoings. MiD DAY has a copy of the video

Dowry harassment caught on camera

Ex-ACP of Delhi police claims relatives of his daughter's former fiance harassing them. Uses spycam to capture them admitting to their wrongdoings. MiD DAY has a copy of the video

Not all marriages are made in heaven. And some of them involve sting operations. The family of a woman, who was allegedly harassed for dowry by her fiance's relatives, secretly recorded a meeting between the two sides to get her prospective in-laws booked in dowry harassment case. The incident is of Ghaziabad district of UP.u00a0u00a0
"We had to conduct the sting operation as the groom's family has lodged several false cases against us. The grooms' uncle is a serving IAS officer who wanted a share in the dowry.

Knotty affair: A 2007 photograph of Nidhi and Aishwarya, who were
supposed to get married (centre), with Aishwarya's uncle and aunt.

On his instruction UP police lodged false cases against us. Some of them were later proved to be bogus. Investigation official submitted his last report stating that the cases were false and we were being framed. The groom's family is still harassing us. Our family had to conduct this sting to prove our innocence. We conducted the operation when the groom's family came to apologise for their wrongdoings," said the father of the girl Ved Pal Singh Rana, an ex-ACP of Delhi Police.

Split ends:u00a0A grab of the groom's parents from the sting. Pics/Mid Day

Rana said that four days ago a team of Civil Lines Police of Badaun district in UP came to arrest him in connection with a case of cheating. "Badaun Police acted on the instructions of the IAS," alleged Rana.
The girl's family said that now the sting video in which the groom's family has confessed to their misdeeds can prove them innocent.

Once upon a time
The matter dates back to 2007. Nidhi, daughter of ex-ACP of Delhi Police Ved Pal Singh Rana was staying in Seemant Vihar colony in Ghazaibad.u00a0 Her wedding was fixed with Aishwarya Pratap Singh. But after the engagement Aishwrya's family started demanding huge amounts in dowry from Nidhi's family. The girl' family declined. Aishwarya's family then threatened them with dire consequences and cancelled the marriage.
Ved Pal Singh Rana said that he had tried a lot to persuade the groom and his family but his plea fell on deaf ears.

Wedding woes
"The groom's family made a list of dowry items that was written by the IAS official. We were shocked to see the demands. They cancelled the wedding when we refused to comply," said Rana. The wedding invitations had been distributed and all arrangements had already been made by the girl's family.u00a0

The cop's family was taken aback when they got a court notice by the groom family in which they were accused for holding their hostage and forcing her to cancel the marriage. "Pratap's family filed a habeas corpus with the Allahabad High Court against us. We got the notice, but a day after the court date, and could not appear at the first hearing. After this we too decided to approach court and the police," said Rana.

Rana said that after the court notice they came to know that an FIR was lodged against them with Indirapurm Police Station of Ghaziabad by the groom's uncle alleging that Rana along with his goons had come to his house and robbed them of their valuables at gunpoint. This case was investigated by inspector Delhi Gate, Meerut on the instruction of DIG. The inspector submitted the last report on the case and found that the matter was false and Rana was being framed.

Tit for tat
"We heaved a sigh of relief. But a few days later we came to know that another FIR against us of cheating was registered at Civil Lines Police Station, Badaun district in UP. We have gone to Badaun and the complaint had not mentioned the time of the incident and place of occurrence. This shows that this was another false FIR," alleged Rana.

Meanwhile, a case of dowry harassment was registered by Indirapuram Police of Ghaziabad on the basis of the complaint made by Ved Pal Singh Rana. "In the FIR I had accused eight persons including, the IAS officer for demanding dowry and threatening us," said Ved Pal Singh Rana. He said that no action was taken by the police for three years. Rana then approached senior police officials to complain against the local police alleging that they were dancing to the tunes of the IAS officials.

Late reaction
Rana said that three years after the FIR, local police decided to arrest the groom and his family for demanding dowry. "On January 5 the groom and his family approached us to apologize for the matter. They asked us to take back the dowry complaint filed by them. They were talking about a compromise and of withdrawing the cases filed against us. I recorded the conversation using a spy camera to establish my innocence," said the ACP. MiD DAY tried to get reactions from the groom's uncle, Yogendra Singh, Head of the department in Chaudhry Charan Singh University, Meerut. But he abused our reporter and refused to comment on the matter.

Caught
Five members of a family have been booked for dowry harassment in Faridabad following complaint by a woman, police said on Thursday. According to the complainant Surbhi, originally a resident of Faridabad, her in-laws and husband Rohit, a resident of Delhi, allegedly demanded a dowry of Rs four lakh and a car immediately after the marriage. They got married few years ago. The in-laws began to harass her when she did not fulfill these demands, police said, adding that they even threatened to kill her. The matter is being investigated.

On paper
On July 1, MiD DAY Delhi and two other leading newspapers of the national capital were absolved of defamation charges by a city court for reporting an incident about a dowry demand in 1996. The news article in question blamed a groom for walking out of his marriage as his alleged demand of dowry was not met. Metropolitan Magistrate Prashant Sharma discharged the then editors of the dailies from the charges of defaming and harming the reputation of the complainant - Colonel (retd) Prem Singh. Singh had filed the defamation case after publication of reports that he and his son had broken off the engagement as their demand for dowry was not fulfilled by the bride's family. "He (Singh) has failed to prove the falsity of the statement published in the newspapers in question and malice on the part of the accused no. 2 to 4 (three newspapers)," the court said adding that Singh was also unable to provide evidence as to how his personal or professional life was affected due to the published article. The bride's father, SP Dabas, was also discharged from the charge of criminal breach of trust. Singh said the marriage which was scheduled for Nov 26, 1996 was called off after certain facts about the girl came to his family's notice and were unacceptable to them. His son also allegedly heard undesirable comments from some boys about the girl and when he asked for clarifications from her, she allegedly answered that she would make them pay a "heavy price" for it. The court in its final judgment delivered last week of June said that the newspapers attributed the story on observations made by a senior police officer.