Breaking: DCP With Mumbai Police booked for extortion

Even as the Mumbai Police is still recovering from the damage caused to its image by the recent Sachin Waze case, a serving Deputy Commissioner of Police was on Tuesday named as a wanted accused in an extortion case.

The Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU) had earlier this month arrested three officers with the LT Marg police station in south Mumbai for allegedly extorting money from angadia couriers. Angadias are traditional couriers known for ferrying large amounts of cash on a daily basis, and their services are engaged by jewellers and businessmen who need ready cash in their line of work.

In its remand application filed before the Esplanade Court on Tuesday, the CIU has named Deputy Commissioner of Police Saurabh Tripathi as a wanted accused in the case.

“Tripathi was named as an accused based on certain facts that came to light during the interrogation of the arrested accused. He was the DCP in charge of Zone II at the time of the offence, and the three accused arrested earlier, all of them posted with the LT Marg police station, were under his supervision. Investigations conducted so far indicate that the money was extorted from the angadias on Tripathi’s verbal instructions,” an officer who is part of the investigation told National Herald.

Tripathi was recently transferred from Zone II to Operations, but reported sick the very next day and has been incommunicado since then, sources said.

The CIU had on February 18 registered a case against police inspector Om Wangate, assistant police inspector Nitin Kadam and police sub inspector Samadhan Jamdade with the LT Marg police station, after members of an angadia association submitted complaints of extortion against them. Kadam and Jamdade were arrested the same day that the case was registered, while Wangate was arrested on March 11, after his anticipatory bail application was rejected by the Sessions Court.

In the days to come, the CIU recorded statements from at least 10 angadias, out of which four alleged that they had been illegally detained for money. The total value of the money extorted by the accused, according to statements recorded so far, comes up to around Rs 19 lakh, officers said.

“The accused would take money from angadias after detaining them and would threaten to report them to the Income Tax department if they refused to comply,” the officer said.

The CIU has recovered footage from several Closed Circuit Television cameras in the area where the accused are seen interacting with the victims, while corroborative investigations are still underway, officials said.