“Devil Wears ‘Khaadi’ (The Unmasking of Romesh Sharma)” continues…

During his stay in Delhi he grabbed properties that included C-30, Mayfair Garden; C-28 (Basement), Mayfair Garden; S-41, Panchsheel Park; C-31, Hauz Khas, Jai Mata Di Farms (where the robbed helicopter of H. Suresh Rao was parked) and the first floor of B-121, Sarvodaya Enclave. The stories behind the forcible occupation of each one of these properties were both bizarre and fascinating and would run into several pages. The ease with which he grabbed them is a telling comment on our feeble system. Readers can get a fair idea of the eventual ineffectiveness of our legal system by the fact that Sharma is now a free man, having served his sentence of 14 years, and continues to be the proud owner of these priceless pieces of real estate, enjoying the riches they generate. None of the genuine owners has come forward to lodge a complaint because of the fear of the underworld. Even if anyone had, Section 102 of the Criminal Procedure Code empowers the police to seize only movable properties and not immovable! The police can seize wrist-watches, jewellery, motor-cars, weapons etc but not real estate, which may have been acquired with the proceeds of crime or may be forcibly grabbed. Incidentally, a proposal was moved by us in the CBI in 1999 to the Ministry of Home Affairs to amend the law in the wake of this case. Our proposal, though accepted in principle, lies dormant in a government file caught somewhere in the labyrinth of the bureaucratic system and is yet to see the light of the day.

One of the distinct traits of Romesh Sharma revealed during our investigation was his insatiable lust for women. Besides exploiting them sexually himself, he used them to entertain and oblige powerful people in politics and government, in cahoots with the chief liaison man of a top corporate house. We rescued several girls, barely in their twenties, incarcerated in some of his properties. However, neither they nor their parents were interested in lodging complaints with the police and taking legal action against him.

To be continued...