COURTESY HT FEB 9
Cop shot dead
Delhi woman cop shot dead by colleague who stalked her
Preeti Ahlawat and Deepanshu Rathi (right)
Anvit Srivastava
anvit.srivastava@htlive.com
New Delhi : A woman sub-inspector of the Delhi Police was shot dead near a Metro station in Rohini area by a male colleague, who was later found dead with a gunshot wound in Haryana’s Karnal, investigators said on Saturday.
Deepanshu Rathi, a sub-inspector posted at the Bhajanpura police station, was allegedly forcing 26-year-old Preeti Ahlawat, posted at the Patparganj Industrial Area Police Station, to marry him. He shot Ahlawat in the head near the Rohini East Metro station at around 9.30pm on Friday after she turned down his proposal, the police said.
Rathi, in his late 20s, appeared to have shot himself dead in his car hours after the crime, the police added.
“A police team was rushed to the spot and the woman was taken to a hospital where she was pronounced dead. Her body was shifted to BSA Hospital for a postmortem examination. A crime and forensics team that was called on the spot collected three bullet shells from the spot,” a police officer said on condition of anonymity.
According to the police, Ahlawat, a 2018 batch officer, was a native of Haryana’s Rohtak and was living at a rented accommodation. At around 9.30pm on Friday, the police received a call from Rohini Sector 8 that a man had shot a woman in D-Block near the Rohini East Metro station and fled the scene.
“Witnesses and passersby told us that the duo was seen aggressively discussing something for over an hour before the man fired three bullets. Locals said when they reached the spot, they found the woman lying unconscious, bleeding from her head and the suspect fled before he could be caught. CCTV footage was obtained to identify the man and a case of murder was registered,” the officer said. CCTV footage showed that Rathi fired at Ahlawat from behind.
Additional commissioner of police (Rohini) SD Mishra said the police later received information at 2am that Rathi was found dead near Karnal with a bullet injury to his head. “Rathi’s body was found in a white Santro car parked roadside. The car belongs to him. A pistol was recovered from the car. The case has been registered at the Sonipat police station and the Haryana Police are probing it. Preliminary forensics examination suggests it was the same pistol with which Ahlawat was shot. The shells recovered from the spot in Rohini are being matched with the pistol to confirm this,” Mishra said.
The service pistol, according to the police, was given to Rathi for election duty in the Capital, but he did not report to work on Friday. The DCP said that while the police did not recover any suicide note from Rathi, their WhatsApp messages showed that the two were acquainted with each other and Rathi had been trying to force Ahlawat to marry him.
“We have found that she had turned down his proposal. This seems to be the main reason behind the murder that was followed by the man’s suicide. So far, we have no information on whether the woman officer had filed any official complaint against Rathi for harassment. Further probe is underway. Both the families have been informed,” Mishra said.
One of Ahlawat’s colleagues, who did not wish to be named, said: “Since most of us were juniors to her, we only interacted related to work. She never mentioned to any of us about being disturbed by anything. It was shocking to learn about her murder.”
Ahlawat lived in Rohini’s Sector-8 along with two of her batchmates. She is survived by her father, a retired BSF officer, mother and two siblings