UMA Khurana today saw the sting operation that has taken the city by storm for the first time, a day after she was granted bail by a city court. She also “confronted” the sting reporter, Prakash Singh, for almost four hours as the Delhi Police Special Team interrogated her at the Crime Branch office.
Post-interrogation, sources said the police have sent a report to the Education department saying Khurana did not run a prostitution racket. The report adds that allegations made in the sting, aired by Live India channel on August 31, are false, sources said.
But stopping short of giving a totally clean chit, the police maintained they have a case against the suspended Mathematics teacher since she was shown “handing over” the girl to Prakash, shown as a decoy customer in the sting — she is charged under Section 5 of Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act.
Khurana did not speak with the media after the interrogation at the Crime Branch’s RK Puram office but a police official said she was “traumatised” after confronting Prakash.
Khurana was brought to the Branch’s office at 11.30 am; Prakash was brought in at 3.45 pm. The two were then made to “confront each other” till 7.30 pm, with CDs of the sting playing in the interrogation room, sources said.
The police have prepared a case dairy and will present it in the High Court on Wednesday. Officials said Rashmi Singh, the reporter who enacted the role of a call girl in the sting, would soon be made to confront the duo.
‘She did it for business’
Delhi Police PRO Rajan Bhagat said, “We have recovered a CD from Prakash’s previous media organisation in which Khurana was shown saying, ‘you are late’, and the ‘girl has gone to school.”
According to Bhagat, Khurana today said she made these remarks “to retain Singh’s business offer”.
According to sources, she said Prakash approached her with Virender Arora on July 7. She said Arora, a businessman, owed her money — a fact refuted by Prakash, who had earlier said Arora, in fact, claims the teacher owed her over Rs 1 lakh. Khurana told interrogators Prakash offered her 10 per cent partnership, or business worth Rs 50 lakh, in a jewellery showroom, as reported by Newsline earlier.
Prakash, she reportedly told the interrogators, also claimed he ran a garment exporting business, with a factory in Gurgaon. And since he sounded confident, she had little reason to doubt his claims, Khurana told interrogators.
Sources said she was in touch with Prakash till August 31, the day the sting was aired.
Meanwhile, the police have been unable to find any complaint against Khurana at her school in Vivek Vihar, police PRO Bhagat said. “Allegations leveled against school principal Prem Saran (in the sting) are also false.”
Post-interrogation, Khurana’s lawyer K K Sharma claimed the police have “harassed” Khurana for 12 days by keeping her in custody. “I am going to take up the matter with the Chief Justice tomorrow,” he said.
Reporter sent to 2 days police custody
Meanwhile, the Crime Branch got Prakash Singh’s custody for two more days. He was arrested on September 7 and sent to judicial custody. The police today presented a remand application in the court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Alok Aggarwal stating that since Prakash was the chief conspirator in the sting they need to interrogate him further.