Missing cop case shifted to Panipat police

“We have transferred the case to Panipat as Reeta was last seen in Panipat,” said Deputy Superintendent of Police (Central) Ashish Kapoor.

Inspector Dilsher Singh Chandel, SHO of the Sector 17 police station, where the case was registered, said, “The permission for narco-analysis (lie detection) test of the suspect, constable Ravinder, was also sent to the Panipat police with the case file.”

Reeta, who had been working with the Chandigarh Police for three years and was posted in the control room, visited her village, Chulkana in Haryana, on June 7. The next day, her brother dropped her at the bus stop from where she boarded a bus to Chandigarh.

However, she did not reach Chandigarh. After searching for a few days, her family lodged a complaint with the Chandigarh Police.

Investigation showed that instead of going to Chandigarh, Reeta had got off the bus at Panipat, and then gone to Karnal. Her phone was last traced to Karnal, before it was switched off around 4 am on June 9.

The police also found that constable Ravinder’s phone was at a place about 25 kilometre away from Reeta’s phone at its last location.

A day before she went missing, Reeta had met Ravinder, who is posted at the Sector 19 police station, outside the Sector 17 police station. The CCTV footage of the police station shows Reeta handing over one of her phones to Ravinder.

Call details of the two showed that they were constantly in touch and had exchanged about 2,000 calls in a year. The police had questioned Ravinder at length, but to no avail.

Reeta’s family members alleged that the police were trying to save Ravinder who, they said, was somehow involved in Reeta’s disappearance.
Police teams were sent to Delhi and all the police stations en route from Karnal to Delhi to check if any of the unclaimed bodies found there resembled Reeta, but drew a blank.