The estranged wife of an Indian Navy officer, who had earlier this year alleged “wife swapping” in the force, was arrested by the Delhi Police in Vasant Vihar for allegedly trying to obtain a credit card in her husband’s name using forged documents.
The complainant had also accused her husband of harassing her for dowry and forcing her into having sex with his seniors.
Students of Jawaharlal Nehru University, where the accused is enrolled in a graduation course, staged a protest at the campus and outside the Vasant Vihar police station on Saturday, accusing the police of falsely implicating her in the case.
Refuting the allegations, the police said a first information report was registered on the basis of a complaint lodged by the bank against the accused.
The police have booked her under Sections 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating) and 471 (using forged documents as genuine) read with Section 511 of the Indian Penal Code and also under provisions of the Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act.
The woman was at her Jia Sarai rented accommodation when a police team reached there around 2.30 p.m. on Saturday.
When she learnt that she was being taken into custody in a case registered at the Vasant Vihar police station, she called up her lawyer Kamini Jaiswal.
“She had contacted me about two weeks ago to file an application seeking transfer of investigations in the case registered against her husband in Kochi, Kerala, to Delhi. On Saturday afternoon she called me up to inform that she was being arrested in a case,” said Ms. Jaiswal.
The woman’s supporters alleged that she had been framed to desist her from pursuing the case against her husband, which involves allegations of wife swapping in the Indian Navy.
The police said a high level inquiry into the matter was under way in the Ministry of Defence.
According to the police, the woman had recently approached the IIT branch of State Bank of India for a credit card.
“She allegedly applied in the name of her husband and supplied necessary documents pertaining to him, including an employment report purportedly from his commanding officer. The letter bore Indian Navy’s emblem and purported signatures of the senior officer. Suspecting that something was amiss, the bank representatives got all the interactions with her video-graphed clandestinely and recently lodged a complaint with us,” said a senior police officer.
The police sent the documents to the Indian Navy for verification. “They confirmed that the papers had been forged, the emblem was a cut-and-paste job and that the signature of the commanding officer had also been forged. Accordingly we registered a case and arrested the accused,” the officer added.
Raising suspicion about the real motive behind police action, the woman’s lawyer, Ms. Jaiswal said: “The whole thing has been concocted. How often does the bank video-graph credit card applicants? She has been framed.”
The woman had earlier lodged a complaint at the Vasant Vihar police station accusing her husband of torturing her and also asking her to establish physical relations with her seniors at Southern Naval Command in Kochi to improve his professional prospects.
She also alleged that she was gang-raped by his seniors. The complaint was subsequently transferred to Kochi where a case was registered under Sections 354 and 498 A of the IPC.
The woman complainant had recently also met Defence Minister A.K. Antony, who had promised strong action in case anyone was found guilty.
