Inspector Anil Sharma lost his brother and father when the trial was on, but he still stood strong and continued working on the case.
New Delhi: Inspector Anil Sharma of Delhi Police, who led the team that investigated the December 2012 gang rape and murder, has never missed a single hearing in the case in the past six years.
“The trial is as important as the investigation in the case. This was a case we took ownership of, so we had to take it to its conclusion,” he said, a day after the Supreme Court dismissed pleas filed by three of the four convicts seeking review of its verdict upholding the death penalty awarded to them.
The fourth death row convict, Akshay Kumar Singh (31), did not file a review petition against the apex court’s 5 May, 2017 judgment.
“There are a lot of things to be taken care of in the court. Sometimes, there are case properties that would not come on time, then the public prosecutor is not assisted properly, there are clarifications that the court needs,” Sharma, 39, recalls.
“I feel it is my responsibility to be there, since I have been attached to the case since the beginning,” he adds.
While the trial was on, Sharma, who hails from Rajasthan, lost his brother and father, but he still stood strong and kept working on the case, until the last paper was filed in the court.
“During that time, my brother passed away after he met with an accident at home. I remember, while I was giving bath to his dead body, the very next minute I was updating my senior officer about the case,” Sharma, then station house officer (SHO) of Vasant Vihar, says.
Soon after, his father fell sick and was hospitalised. “I was so engrossed in the case that I forgot about my father who was admitted in the hospital. I could not even see him during his last hours,” he recalls.
Emotional connect
For 17 days, Sharma and his team worked day and night to gather evidence, record statements as they sought to solve the brutal gang rape of the paramedical student on 16 December, 2012.
But Sharma says he also made sure he took out time to be with the 23-year-old, battling for life at Delhi’ Safdarjung hospital, comforting her in the process.
“As a police officer you are expected to be totally professional, concentrating on the investigation, but this was one of cases that got us emotionally involved,” he says.
“We pledged that we will do anything to put the culprits behind bars. That was the promise that we made to ourselves as police officers. And I remember the pressure was insurmountable,” Sharma recalls.
Whenever he took a break from recording statements during those 17 days, he would meet her at the hospital and narrate stories. “I also told her that we would celebrate New Year together, watching television. She had a spark in her, the drive to live, do something in life, which was very encouraging,” the police officer adds.
Sharma, currently SHO of Kirti Nagar police station in west Delhi, also flew to Singapore to see the victim, but sadly she died the day he landed.
Coming from a police family
Sharma, who finished his schooling from Rajasthan, briefly worked as a sales officer for Phillips and Shelton before he joined the CISF and then Delhi Police. “I always wanted to be a police officer because my grandfather was in the police,” he says.
“Luckily after I got through, I was made the in-charge of Turkman Gate chowki, where my grandfather was the SHO. It was a very emotional moment,” he says.
The father of two claims he hardly spends time with his family due to work pressure.
Sharma says he feels very content that the team’s efforts finally paid off. One thing, he said he learnt from the case was that a policeman should focus on an impeccable investigation, which anchors on strong evidence.
“If you do your work properly, you will get strong evidence, and then it is impossible for the criminal to get away. Like in this case, we relied heavily on scientific and orthodontic evidence that helped our case immensely,” he says.
Top performer
Besides Vasant Vihar and Kirti Nagar, Sharma was posted as SHO of Fatehpur Beri and Chandi Mahal. He claims that the crime rate in Kirti Nagar has gone down drastically after he took charge of the area and in the past one year, 90 proclaimed offenders have been arrested.
Kirti Nagar was also awarded the best police station in the country by Quality Council of India. “I believe that crime can be controlled if due efforts are made. Now we have made sure that the Ring Road area around Kirti Nagar is completely CCTV-enabled,” the officer says
“We have even brought the slums in the area under CCTV surveillance, which has helped bring down crime,” he claims.
Recently a child was kidnapped from a slum cluster in the area but was rescued in just four days after they received crucial leads from CCTV footage.
Hats off to you Sir.