INDIA BUSINESS WORLD - APRIL 2007
The Month that was ...

CHARGESHEET FILED BY CBI IN KAVITA RANI CASE

THE Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday filed a charge sheet in the Kavita Rani murder case, which had caused a political storm in UP and led to the resignation of two ministers in the Mulayam Singh government. The CBI alleged in the charge sheet that the lecturer herself was part of a blackmailing gang and that she was murdered by her co-conspirators. The CBI on Friday charge sheeted five persons - Ravinder Pradhan, his nephew Ravinder, Yogesh, Ashok Kumar and Sultan Singh - for allegedly murdering and kidnapping the lecturer. They were also charged under various other sections including extortion. The CBI is still investigating the role of the politicians, whose names have cropped up during the investigation.

The CBI had earlier questioned state education minister Kiran Pal Singh for over four hours as Kavita Rani's mobile records for the one month preceding her disappearance showed that she frequently talked to Mr Kiran Pal Singh and former UP ministers Mehrajuddin Ahmed and Chaudury Babu Lal. Sources said that all of them have been put through a polygraph test.

Kavita Rani, who was a temporary lecturer at Chaudhry Charan Singh University in Meerut, was murdered on October 24 last year. The CBI in its charge sheet says Kavita alongwith Ravinder Pradhan and the other accused allegedly hatched a scheme to blackmail politicians including former UP minister Mehrajuddin and former vice chancellor R.P. Singh. Using hidden cameras, they allegedly recorded footage of the lecturer and politicians including former minister Mehrajjudin and R.P. Singh, in compromising positions. The charge sheet alleged that they made separate CDs for blackmailing purposes and then extorted Rs 35 lakhs from Mehrajuddin.

After being paid the money by Mehrajuddin, the Ravinder Pradhan allegedly paid only Rs 40,000 to Kavita, who protested and got a gangster called Yashveer alias Fauji to threaten them. Pradhan and his nephew called Kavita to Ghaziabad on October 23 last year. The two allegedly gave her juice spiked with intoxicants and then strangled her to death and threw her body into Sanota canal near Bulandsher, the CBI alleged.

To counter threats from Yashveer, who had procured computer memory sticks of the recorded footage, Pradhan and his nephew tipped off the Delhi Police about Yashveer being in Delhi. On December 21, 2006, Yashveer was shot dead by the police after in a gun battle near Sarita Vihar. The murder of the lecturer had sparked off a political controversy that led to the resignation of Mehrajjudin and Chaudhury Babu Lal, who was minister of state for food processing. Both acknowledged that they knew Kavita Rani but denied any role in the disappearance and the murder.