Delhi crime: 2022 rape probe leads police to ‘serial’ offenders

On December 24, 2024,the court ordered police at the Preet Vihar station to lodge a separate FIR in the matter.

An investigation into the alleged rape of a woman in a moving car in 2022 led to disturbing revelations — police discovered videos on the suspects’ phones that showed that they had raped assaulted, and threatened multiple women while filming the gruesome crimes.

2022 rape probe leads police to ‘serial’ offenders

The evidence prompted a city court in December 2024 to order the east Delhi police to register a second case against them. Accordingly, police took up investigation and submitted the charge sheet in the second case two days ago.

Talking about the second case, police said they seized the suspects’ phones on December 16, 2022, four days after a woman accused them of raping her in a moving car. Police sent the phones for a forensic examination and the experts unearthed clips of multiple women allegedly being raped, thrashed and threatened by the suspects.

According to a bail dismissal order by Delhi court in December 2024,seen by HT, forensic science laboratory (FSL) shared a pen drive containing these 12 video clips with the court. The accompanying FSL document said, “It is pointed out that in those videos, the accused are not only raping the girls, but they are also beating them brutally and threatening to kill them.”

On December 24, 2024,the court ordered police at the Preet Vihar station to lodge a separate FIR in the matter.

Deputy commissioner of police (east) Abhishek Dhania confirmed that a second FIR was registered in the last week of December 2024 and added that a charge-sheet in the case was filed two days ago accusing Deepak Singh Ahlawat, 35, and Mehraj Khan, 25, of raping, thrashing and threatening women.

“In the 12 videos we have scanned, we found atrocities being committed against two women. We have submitted the charge-sheet but the investigation is still ongoing. We are looking for the victims in those videos and after we find them, we will file a supplementary charge-sheet,” a police officer associated with the case said, asking not to be named.

Advocate Abdul Gaffar, who represented Khan earlier, said he had seen the videos of the accused allegedly assaulting and thrashing multiple women. “In some videos, they were sexually assaulting women who were even bleeding. There were some videos in which they were travelling with women. The videos contained assault on multiple women. I stopped representing Khan in December,” he said.

Advocate Nadeem Khan, who is now representing both accused, said the charge-sheet in the second case was formally received by them on Monday and they are yet to hold of the physical copy. Both accused are currently in judicial custody.

Police said the charge-sheet in the first case was filed in 2023 and it was during the course of that hearing that further alleged crimes came to fore.

According to the FIR in the first case, on December 12, 2022, a 30-year-old woman alleged that she had met a man, identified Deepak Singh Ahlawat, 35, on a matrimonial website and he asked her to meet him in Preet Vihar. She met him and got into his car, where his friend, Mehraj Khan, 25, was already present. After having dinner in Connaught Place, the two took her towards Baghpat, and Ahlawat and Khan allegedly took turns raping her in the rear seat of the car while the other kept driving.

In the FIR, the woman alleged that when she resisted, he hit her with the butt of a pistol. It was only on hearing the siren of a passing police vehicle that the two men stopped and threw her out of the car, she told police.

With the help of a passerby, she sought help from police and FIR of rape was registered. The victim was sent for a medical examination, which confirmed rape.

A senior police officer said four days later, on December 16, 2022, Ahlawat and Khan were arrested on charges of rape. Police seized their phones and sent them for a forensic examination, unearthing evidence of rape and assault and intimidation.