NEW DELHI: A woman resident of Bhajanpura, who was allegedly involved in the murder of Delhi police head constable Ratan Lal during the 2020 northeast Delhi communal riots, was arrested, the police said on Friday.
On February 23, 2020, the protestors, despite the proclamation of prohibition orders, under section 144 CrPC, continued their protests at Chand Bagh to grab the attention of International media during the visit of US President Donald Trump. In view of the extreme tension, the then DCP (Shahdara) Amit Sharma and ACP Gokulpuri Anuj Kumar were deployed for maintaining law and order. On the call of the organisers, protestors carrying lathies (wooden batons), weapons rushed to the Wazirabad Road. Defying the instructions of the senior police officers asking them to return to service road, the mob started pelting stones and petrol bombs at the police personnel.
Head Constable Ratanlal lost his life in the incident and then DCP Sharma and ACP Kumar were seriously injured. Deputy Commissioner of Police (northeast) Sanjay Kumar Sain said since long, operations wing of North East district had been working hard to trace the whereabouts of absconding accused in HC Ratan Lal murder case but was not getting specific leads.
“During technical surveillance, it surfaced that the mobile number of the accused was not in use but on thorough analysing of the call detail record, 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 raised suspicion,” the senior official said. After specific inputs, a trap was laid near the Cogent building in Sector-63, Noida and the accused was arrested.
On interrogation, the woman disclosed that during riots, she had been involved in CAA-NRC protests and later fled her house to escape from police. During this period she married a person who arranged a job for her in a Noida-based company. She further revealed that she only used internet calling through apps, the official added.