Indulgence of Women in Criminal Activities

Crime is an act that violates the law. It is punishable by Government. It is a deviant act, deemed harmful to the society at large. Common crimes are: theft, robbery, assault, sexual assault, homicide etc.

To deter it, punishment is given. Idea is to check future occurrence of crime and prevent potential offenders. It may include reprimands, deprivation of liberty, fines, life imprisonment and death penalty. In general, criminals are mostly men. However, now women too are not lagging behind. When I say so, I am not trying to be biased. Analysis of seventeen cases below would reveal the facts.

One hears about crimes against women in domestic setting frequently. But women can also take a lead in crimes, such as, pertaining to property, theft, fraud, forgery, cheating, black mailing, dowry deaths and assaults. Though rates and types of crime committed by them often differ from those committed by menfolk.

Pooja Singhal Case

A senior I.A.S. officer of Jharkhand, Pooja Singhal was arrested on charges of money laundering in May 2022. A bright student, she made it to Civil Services after completing 21 years. She was Secretary, Industries & Mining, in Jharkhand at the time of arrest. Her present husband happens to be a co-accused. A high profile officer, having wide connections, she had to stay behind bar for 28 months. Surprisingly, her suspension has been revoked on 21 January 2025.

Case Of Puja Khedkar, IAS Probationer

Assistant Collector, Training, Pune, Puja Khedkar confronted difficulties fairly early in career. She has been accused of cheating and wrongly availing O.B.C. and disability quota benefits in the Civil Services Examination.

Although she has now protection from arrest from the Supreme Court, she appeared in Civil Services Examination 12 times as against permissible 9 attempts. Her parents never discourage her from getting involved in irregular activities. Her conduct as a Probationer has been proved unbecoming of an officer by her Collector.

UPSC has filed a criminal case against her for forging identity papers, misrepresenting and falsifying facts to obtain extra attempts in the C.S.E., 2022.

Government of India has discharged her from service after her candidature was cancelled by the U.P.S.C. and registration of a criminal case against her by Delhi Police.

Khedkar, aged 32 years, is a trained doctor. Another sad case of a bright student spoiling her career.

Nikita Singhania Case

One Atul Subhash, an Engineer committed suicide in Bengaluru on 9th December, 2024 due to continuous harassment, torture and huge monetary demands from his wife Nikita Singhania. Nikita, though was also employed as an Engineer in Accenture, New Delhi, had demanded an unreasonable sum of Rs.3 Crores from her husband. It was in addition to Rs.2 lakhs per month, she was ‘extorting’ from the deceased. An additional sum of Rs.10 lakhs was demanded by her family since they were reportedly dissatisfied with what was given at the time of wedding.

These were revealed in his 24 page suicide note and 90 minute video message. Not only Nikita had taken away their minor son but she was also putting pressure through her mother, uncle and brother on her husband. Nikita had filed a complaint against the deceased in the Family Court of Jaunpur, headed by Rita Kaushik. She was not only found biased in favour of Nikita but was also indulging in corruption. Though, after a long chase, three family members were arrested, what will happen to this case can be anybody’s guess.

A similar case is yet to be decided. Only silver lining is that the concerned harassed husband, instead of committing suicide, is fighting it out with his estranged spouse.

Ranya Rao Case

Case of Ranya Rao, a failed actress of Kannada and Tamil films is unbelievable and shocking. She was arrested on 3rd March in a huge gold smuggling case at Bengaluru airport.Gold bars worth Rs 12.56 crores were found tied to her belt. Further inquiries revealed that she had visited Dubai 30 times in one month. She was never security checked and was boldly using a Police vehicle to get dropped and picked up from airport.

A raid at her residence led to recovery of jewellery and large sums of cash. In all, she was found in possession of Rs 34.58 crores. During every trip abroad, she would manage to earn Rs.12 to Rs.13 lakhs. While she is shuffling between Judicial to E.D. to DRI remand , she has alleged torture, being slapped and sleep deprivation in custody. She has alleged that her signatures were forcibly taken on blank and typed papers.

Her Step father, a DGP in Karnataka, who is now keeping distance from her, has been sent on Compulsory leave. Though he too was involved in two cases, he was never arrested. It included recovery of a large sum of money received through Hawala transactions.

Another case was concerning encounter killings.

Financial Irregularities By High & Mighty Women

If we begin from top rung, one may mention cases of Chanda Kochar, former M.D.& CEO of ICICI Bank and Madhavi Puri Buch, former Chairperson of SEBI.

Chanda, Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan awardee and once much talked about woman Executive of the country disappointed everybody. As she figured in the Forbes’s and TIME magazine’s lists of Influential people, she became a role model. Misguided by her husband, she misused her powers and indulged in money laundering, cheating and defrauding ICICI Bank to the tune of Rs.1730 Crores. She had approved high value loans to the Videocon Group in December 2022.

Madhavi Puri Buch, former Chairperson of Securities & Exchange Board of India is also facing grave charges levelled by Hindenburg Research of U.S. of artificially inflating shares of companies owned by Adani group. Dhawal Buch, her husband is also reportedly involved. She dared to remain absent from a Public Accounts Committee meeting. It is surprising that like Chanda Kochar, she was talented and highly rated, yet her misdeeds are going to cause her downfall.

Involvement Of Women In Heinous Crimes

One cannot think of murdering one’s own daughter. It happened at Ghazipur. Bindu, the merciless mother, killed her daughter with the help of her partner.

Another case of similar nature happened at Cumbum, Andhra Pradesh, where K. Laxmi Devi, a 57 year old not only killed her son but also cut his body into five pieces.

In Thane, Maharashtra, one Yashasvi Pawar killed her differently abled teenaged daughter. She was poisoned prior to disposing of her body.

In NOIDA, one woman assaulted and dragged a 10 year old boy out of lift and managed to take her two dogs up in the building. The accused living alone was also found having frequent fights with neighbours.

One 25 year old woman of Ghaziabad crossed all limits when she filed a false rape case. She fabricated false evidence after alleging that she was pulled into a car and gang raped by three men. After police investigation commenced, her allegations were found false. Two alleged rapists were not found on the crime scene indicated by her. Doctors who examined her, told Police that there were no internal and external injuries to her private parts.

Dowry Death Cases

These are deaths of married women who are murdered or driven to suicide over disputes concerning dowry. The Act in question is Dowry Prohibition Act Of 1961.Husbands and in laws are identified mostly as primary culprits in such painful cases. It includes younger sisters of husbands as well. In 2024, as per NCRB, there were 6,400 dowry related cases in the country. Actual number may be more as many cases remain unreported. Section 498A of IPC is intended to protect women from cruelty in marital homes.

However, there is a growing tendency to misuse this provision of law. People who have minimal or no role in the alleged offence are also dragged into long criminal trials causing them unnecessary hardship. It is felt that an accusation like cruelty should have substantial evidence.

Landmark Dowry Act cases are: S. Gopal Reddy vs State of Andhra Pradesh, Reema Aggarwal vs Anupam & Others, Phulel Singh vs State of Haryana, Satbir Singh vs State of Haryana and Nisha Sharma Dowry case.

Crimes By Indian Women Abroad

If we look at crimes committed by Indian women abroad, immediately, recent cases of Shahzadi Khan of Banda, U.P. and Mohammed Rinash Arangilottu come to mind. Former killed a four year old son of her employer, while latter was convicted for murdering an Emirati national. These figured in media prominently. Both have been executed. Former was buried in U.A.E. as per local laws. Her father was trying to get her body through M.E.A. till last moment.

Crimes in Delhi and N.C.R.

A number of young women in Delhi and N.C.R., are found working in fake call centres and invariably fall in the trap of those indulging in bank frauds or luring those seeking overseas employment. Many are also arrested for indulging in nefarious acts in the garb of health centres, massage parlours, beauty parlours or similar joints. Newspapers are full of such stories, day in and day out.

Flapshell Turtle Smuggling

Two women, rather a mother daughter gang have been arrested in a case of smuggling Flapshell Turtles from Mathura to NOIDA, knowing it well that the turtles were Protected creatures under Indian Wildlife Protection Act Of 1972 and smuggling them was a non- bailable offence. These would be brought to NOIDA and sold for sacrificial rituals at a price ranging from Rs. One to Ten thousand.

To Sum Up,

An attempt has been made to analyse cases of women who deviated from their normal paths to commit something not acceptable to society. Two of them are IAS officers. Perhaps , none of them had any regrets. There is no end to this sad saga.

Even if some women culprits have been charged, arrested and sentenced, others are ever ready to join the bandwagon. There is no end to materialism, no limit to individual greed, more so, by seeing and following others.

Urge for extra marital relationship is growing manifold. Due to it one man was murdered by Gulabo Devi, his wife aided by her paramour, in Jaipur while body of Saurabh was cut into several pieces by Muskan, his wife and her boyfriend in Meerut. In case of latter, parents themselves have requested for death sentence for their daughter.

(Alok K.Shrivastava is the former Chief Secretary of Sikkim)