Rajasthan launches search for rape-accused cop

JAIPUR/NOIDA - The Rajasthan government Wednesday asked the Special Operations Group (SOG) to find former deputy inspector general (DIG) Madhukar Tandon who has been absconding for the last 13 years after being chargesheeted for raping a tribal woman.

“We have handed over the case to the SOG of the Rajasthan Police. It’s a serious matter that Tandon not been arrested since 1997. We want to arrest him and find out why he’s not been arrested so far,” state Home Minister Shanti Dhariwal told reporters here.

Dhariwal has also sought all the files relating to the case.

“I have asked the police to bring all the files relating to Tandon to me… I want to know the details,” he said.

Malli Devi, a resident of Bandikui in Dausa district has alleged that on Jan 21, 1997 she was abducted and taken to Noida where she was allegedly raped by former DIG Tandon, then posted in the police headquarters and who is now reported to be absconding.

Khayali Ram, the husband of the victim who was a constable attached with the DIG said: “It has been 13 years that he ruined me and my family.”

“Tandon had summoned my wife to Jaipur from the village on the pretext that an accident has happened in my family. When she arrived in Jaipur she was forcefully taken to Noida, to the DIG’s residence, where she was victimised,” said Ram.

“I was forced out of the service when I refused to withdraw the case against Tandon in 2000,” he added.

Tandon was suspended in 2002, five years after the first FIR was lodged against him and a magisterial court in Dausa had ordered all his property including his house in Noida to be attached.

Meanwhile, a Rajasthan police team Wednesday reached Noida in Uttar Pradesh to investigate properties allegedly owned by Tandon.

Police inspected a property in Sector-19 that was allegedly bought by him. When the team zeroed in on House No. A-752, the occupants, however, said that it belonged to them as they had purchased it in 2006.

The team then visited the adjacent plot A-753 and another plot behind it, which was also said to be bought by Tandon in the name of his relatives. The team verified the details of these two properties.

Superintendent of Police (Noida City) Ashok Kumar Tripathi said: The Rajasthan police team had come to check properties that were said to be in his (Tandon’s) name. But the said plot was sold to Kaushik brothers by a different person who had a power of attorney.