New Delhi: An unholy nexus between the police and criminals has been suspected for long, but here is clear evidence of it. And where else, but in the killing fields of Nithari? A Tehelka magazine sting operation, carried out over four weeks, tells a frightening tale of police corruption.
The men in uniform beat up the relatives of those killed in Nithari, made merry on main accused Moninder Singh Pandher’s money and stayed in touch with the high and mighty of UP politics. The spycam probe shows that circle officer Dinesh Yadav, who was in charge of Nithari investigation, called up Shivpal Singh Yadav, CM Mulayam Singh’s brother and the UP PWD minister, at his residence at 7, Kalidas Marg three times from his mobile phone. This happened just before Shivpal visited Nithari to describe the serial killings as ‘‘small, routine incidents’’.

While six Noida police officers have been dismissed and three suspended for negligence in the case, Dinesh Yadav continues to serve as circle officer, Noida. He was not only in touch with Shivpal but also thrashed the relatives of Payal, the 20-year-old woman who was killed, when they came to complain about her disappearance.

It’s another matter that all the threats and actual physical violence on Payal’s brother Prakash and sister-in-law Priya by the police did not make the family give up the search. In fact, their persistence was largely responsible for blowing the lid off Nithari, and that in turn, perhaps explains the desperation to shut them up. TOI tried repeatedly to get in touch with Dinesh Yadav and Noida SSP R K S Rathor to get their side of the picture soon after Star News aired the Tehelka expose, but they did not answer the calls.

Dinesh Yadav appears to be a man with considerable political connection. Apart from ringing up the CM’s brother, he also received a call from Samajwadi Party MP Ravi Prakash Verma’s residence on January 5 when the police officer was in Gujarat for the narco-analysis test of Pandher and Surinder Koli.

All this while Dinesh Yadav and his police colleagues were happily spending Pandher’s money to carry out their duties in style. The investigation shows the officers travelled firstclass AC — all at Pandher’s expense — to appear for hearings on anticipatory bail application of the accused before the Allahabad High Court. This happened not once but three times.

According to the sting operation, police officer Simranjit Kaur went to the Allahabad High Court twice in November: once with a constable and then again with station officer SP Singh. The third time she went with Dinesh Yadav in December. The three trips were made on the Prayagraj Express and the travel vouchers recovered by CBI from Pandher’s factory.

TOI has already reported that Kaur went to the Uttarakhand village of Nandlal, Payal’s father, in a Bolero provided by Pandher. It has also been reported that Pandher had paid off Kaur.

The spycam shows sub-inspector Vinod Pandey, unaware that he was being recorded, say: ‘‘S K Sharma (Pandher’s manager) paid money on Pandher’s behalf... Simranjit Kaur (the Nithari chowki-in-charge since November) was paid two-and-a-half lakh rupees to cover up the matter.’’ Pandey, a former Nithari chowki head, has since been dismissed.