Police suspect woman cop's hand in Teotia murder, held for questioning

MURADNAGAR: A day after the dramatic attack in Muradnagar on BJP leader Brijpal Teotia, who was rained with bullets from an AK-47 and other automatic weapons, police have picked up woman constable Sunita Singh along with two others, Manoj Kumar and Shekhar Chaudhary — both residents of Teotiat's native Mehrauli — for questioning.
Singh, currently posted at Baghpat, is the wife of dreaded criminal Rakesh Hasanpuria, who was shot dead in a police encounter in 2005. Sources in the police said the attack may have been done in retaliation to the 11-year-old incident as Teotia is said to be the one who tipped off cops at that time.
Sources in the police told TOI on Friday that UP cops had gunned down Hasanpuria in 2005 after he, along with some from within the police, was trying to escape after a robbery in the Kavi Nagar industrial area of Ghaziabad. Even after his death, his gang continued to thrive. In 2011, the name of Hasanpuria emerged again when a 70-year-old man was arrested for supplying weapons to this gang.
A top cop said on the condition of anonymity, "There is a possibility of the involvement of the woman as she had vowed to take revenge on Teotia, who is said to have given a tip-off to the police at that time."
The senior police officer also informed that Sunita Singh was, a few years after her husband’s death, terminated from police service for her alleged collusion with criminal gangs. She was posted at Muzaffarnagar at that time. However, after an Allahabad high court order she was reinstated.
Police sources further revealed that Teotia, too, was booked twice for his alleged involvement in murder. “The first case was registered against Teotia in 1998 at Masuri police station of Ghaziabad for his involvement in the murder of three persons near Dasna jail in Ghaziabad. He was booked under Section 120B (involvement in criminal conspiracy) of the IPC.
The second time he was booked was for the murder of a man named Suresh Dewan in 1999. But charges in this case fell through, just like in the other one.
Police sources further revealed that the origin of these killings date back to 1995. At that time Teotia was a constable in Delhi police and so was Suresh Dewan in the UP police. They developed enmity over some land dealings.
After the murder of Dewan in 1999, his nephew Manoj Kumar formed his own gang and join hands with Hasanpuria. However, after the encounter of Hasanpuria, the two sworn enemies of Teotia – Sunita Singh and Manoj Kumar -- joined hands. Meanwhile, after Dewan’s murder in 1999, Teotia left police force and joined politics.