special acb court to hear graft charge against cops
shuklas complained to acb that the two police officers sought graft to settle the extortion complaint
derineh cooper

the anti-corruption complaint filed by builder krishnamilan shukla (aka baba) and his nephew sandeep shukla against crime branch (unit-i) officers, senior police inspector anil mahabole, inspector rajendra nikam and their alleged touts estate broker chandresh shah and one raju was assigned on friday to the court of special anti-corruption bureau (acb) judge ss joshi for trial.

shah was arrested on april 12, allegedly in the process of accepting graft on behalf of the two police officers. raju, who was also present there, managed to evade the police trap and arrest.

the acb had recorded several alleged conversations between shukla, chandresh and raju, who allegedly claimed to be a tout of officers of crime branch (unit i).
the shuklas told the acb that they were introduced to an estate broker vinod avlani by shah because they needed rs2 crore for their sra projects in antop hill, nirmal nagar and wadala.
avlani agreed to pay the money in return for a 51 per cent share in the projects. however, the sra project failed to materialise and avlani asked for return of rs30 lakh paid as earnest money by him. when he did not get his money back, avalani filed an extortion complaint with crime branch against eight persons including krishnamilan and sandeep shukla.
it was then that the shuklas complained to the acb that the two police officers, mahabole and nikam sought graft to settle the extortion complaint between them and avalani.
shah was arrested by acb while allegedly accepting rs1.5 lakh, an installment for the rs10 lakh 'settlement amount'. however, shah is out on bail in both the acb and avalani's extortion complaints.

Publication : DNA; Section : mumbai; Pg : 7; Date : 22/9/07
URL : http://digital.dnaindia.com/epapermain.aspx?edorsup=Sup&queryed=7&querypage=7&boxid=31003478&parentid=48445&eddate=09/22/2007