GURGAON: The Special Cell of Delhi Police lost yet another decorated officer in mysterious circumstances when he was found shot in the head in a Gurgaon apartment on Saturday morning with the body of a woman on top of him. She too was shot in the head. Five years ago, ACP Rajbir Singh of the cell had been murdered in a property dealer’s office in Gurgaon.
The officer, inspector Badrish Dutt, 44, was estranged from his wife and had been reportedly living with the woman, Geeta Sharma, 45. Geeta, divorced from her husband, had a son studying in Singapore. She owned a private detective agency in Delhi and had been arrested by the crime branch of Delhi Police in April for allegedly posing as an IB officer and using a forged IB letterhead. She had spent 21 days in Tihar. Delhi Police say it was she who shot Dutt with his own service pistol and then put a bullet through her head.
How Dutt developed relations with this woman is not clear but sources in Delhi Police said that alarm bells rang in crime branch when they discovered Dutt’s links with her. The matter reached the police headquarters and the special cell asked for a report. Alerted, Dutt quickly began distancing himself from the woman.
Hell has no fury like a woman scorned. Geeta allegedly swore “revenge” and began threatening to “lodge complaints” against Dutt. “This might be the reason why he wanted to meet her,” said a source, speculating how Dutt could have landed up in the second-floor flat in Gurgaon’s Ardee City in Sector 52 once again on Friday night.
Geeta, who originally belonged to Mumbai, had been living in this flat for the past 10 years. She became acquainted with Dutt more than a year back and he began visiting her regularly. His wife now stays alone in Sector 37 of Faridabad along with their daughter. Dutt’s attempt to discuss their relationship on Friday night had fatal consequences.
When Dutt’s juniors found calls to him going unanswered on Saturday, they came down to Gurgaon and discovered the bodies, said a special cell officer. “On Saturday morning, Geeta’s domestic help came to the house around the same time that an acquaintance of Dutt – Neeraj – reached there. They were joined by a special cell officer. The three broke the main door and found the two bodies in the lobby connecting the kitchen with the bedroom, close to the dining room,” said Gurgaon police commissioner Alok Mittal. The cops have seized six cellphones and some other important documents apart from the suspected weapon of offence, Dutt’s Glock service pistol.
According to sources in the cell, Dutt had a bullet wound in his left temple while Geeta had a bullet wound in the right temple. “Dutt’s pistol was next to Geeta’s right hand. The woman was lying on top of Dutt. These are good enough reasons to believe that Dutt was murdered by Geeta before she turned the gun on herself,” said a source. None of them was a left-hander.
Mittal was, however, non-committal when asked about the incident. “We have asked FSL teams to inspect the spot. We will now wait for the postmortem report. Until we receive these reports, we will not comment on who actually shot the other or from what distance,” he said after inspecting the spot.
A case of murder and suicide has been lodged at the Sushant Lok police station. “We were informed about the incident only around 11.30 am by inspector Kailash Bisht,” said Mittal. There was initially some confusion with the Gurgaon cops claiming they were waiting for the special cell to file a complaint as their officers were the first one to find out about the incident.
“Since the family wants the body to be handed over to them at the earliest, the Gurgaon police is hoping to complete the postmortem on Sunday. It will be videographed, said Maheshwar Dyal, DCP, Gurgaon East .
Special cell officers said Dutt had visited the police headquarters and the special cell office on Friday. He was to go to Kotdwar soon. He had last spoken to ACP Manishi Chandra around 10.30 pm on Friday and set out for Gurgaon very late from his office.
Dutt had joined the cell in 1998 and was instrumental in tracking Atif Ameen during the Batla House encounter and later in arresting numerous Indian Mujahideen operatives.
