Cops in dark on how pimp got phone in Tihar

Nearly two months after the notorious Sonu Punjaban allegedly tried to commit suicide in Tihar Jail when authorities found a cellphone with her, police are yet to find out how that phone got into the jail premises.

Only on January 7, the crime branch of Delhi Police identified the person to whom the SIM card used by Geeta Arora alias Sonu Punjaban was supposed to have been issued. But the concerned person has denied that he ever bought the card.

After her phone was seized on November 19, the 30-year-old woman arrested on charges of running an interstate prostitution racket, allegedly attempted suicide by consuming sleeping pills in sub-jail 6 of the high-security prison complex. She was rushed to Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital and brought back after treatment on November 20.

Investigations revealed that the SIM card was issued in the name of Mohammad Sameer of Shish Mahal near Bara Hindu Rao. Sameer told police officials that he is a small-time businessman. Around four years ago he gave his voter card and photos to an employee Rashid who offered to make him a polling agent for the Lok Sabha elections.

“When I asked him to return my documents, he said he had misplaced them and I believed him,” Sameer told police.

Sameer has registered a case with crime branch against Rashid for forging his documents, and police are now looking for Rashid.

“The investigation into the matter has been handed over to Delhi Police crime branch and if any Tihar official is found to have helped smuggle the phone inside the premises, action will be taken,” Tihar spokesman Sunil Gupta told Deccan Herald.

Sonu was arrested on south Delhi’s IGNOU Road in April 2011 when she came to strike a deal for Rs 45,000. It was Sonu’s third arrest for running a prostitution racket. Sonu is the wife of slain gangster Hemant, who was killed in a shoot-out in April 2006.