NEW DELHI, November 6: The Delhi High Court pulled up the police for being hand-in-glove with the persons who dispossessed a middle-aged couple from their house in the Sainik Farm area four years ago. The court has directed the police to make sure the rightful owners get their house back within two weeks.It also directed Anil Soni and Madhu Soni, who had purchased the house on forged documents from K.N. Bharajdwaj - a former employee of Chauhan jewellers - not to interfere when the house is returned to their real owners - Radha Khanna and her husband Vijay.``The resistance, if any, by them or any other persons shall be dealt with by the police according to law,'' the court ruled. It also said the contents of the letter written by former Union home secretary K. Padmanabhaiya on October 25, 1995 to K. Vijay Rama Rao, the then CBI director, shows prima facie hat the police officers concerned had been hand-in-glove with the persons who dispossessed the couple.The bench, comprising acting Chief Justice K.S. Gupta, observed that Radha Khanna, the petitioner, and her family members had been harassed unnecessarily by Delhi Police officials including Raghubir Singh, ACP for Greater Kailash, S.K. Rathi, SHO Ambedkar Nagar Police Station and D.P. Singh, in-charge of the Sainik Farm police post. The court direction follows a petition filed by Khanna and her husband who is a businessman. Radha Khanna charged Bharajdwaj with forcibly evicting her family from their bungalow by coercing her to sign on blank paper.She filed a complaint at the Ambedkar Nagar Police Station alleging that Bharajdwaj used this paper to stake a claim to their bungalow. She stated that the first floor of her bungalow was occupied by Bharajdwaj, while the ground floor was occupied by Ganju Chauhan, the owner of Chauhan Jewellers and the employee of Lal Properties.The investigation into the case was subsequently transferred to the CBI on the recommendation of the Lieutenant Governor. The investigating agency later seized three truck-loads of goods from a Rohini-based house allegedly owned by Bharajdwaj. The property, however, was restored to their rightful owners on the order of CBI Judge V.K. Jain in February 1995.The bench said ``it was the responsibility of the court to direct the restoration of the house to the petitioner and they cannot be non-suited on the ground of availability of an alternate remedy''. The court observed: ``Trespass into the house was committed prima facie in collusion with police authorities. The petitioners have been out of possession of their valuable property for four-and-a-half years.''Moreover, on the day that Radha Khanna was thrown out of her bungalow, the Crime Branch of Adarsh Nagar Police Station arrested her in a cheating case. Her husband too was arrested in the same case. She also alleges that the police later forced her to sign on blank paper.According to the ``sale deed'', the bungalow measuring 500 sq yards and with a total built-up area of 8,500 sq ft had been ``sold'' to K.N. Bharajdwaj for Rs 5 lakh. The sale document was ``microscopically'' examined by the Government Examiners of Questioned Documents. Subsequent investigation by the CBI also showed that Bharajdwaj and his son R.K. Bharajdwaj sold the house to Anil Soni and Madhu Soni for Rs 5.5 lakh showing their titles on the forged documents.
