3 more cops held for taking bribe

Three more policemen have joined the list of ten corrupt policemen
who were arrested since January this year in bribery cases. The growing
incidence of such cases is being viewed with alarm by senior police
officers. What has surprised the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) is that in
every case, there are at least two and more policemen involved. On Sunday
itself, the ACB had nabbed three policemen from the Nirmal Nagar police
station for threatening and extorting money from a tour operator.

    In the latest case, the ACB on Wednesday arrested three policemen
attached to the Byculla police station who had allegedly kidnapped a primary
school teacher, illegally detained him overnight and then tried to extort Rs
90,000 from him.

    The three corrupt police constables arrested on Wednesday have been
identified as Yuraj Kohli, Machinder Pawar and P Desai, all attached to the
Byculla police station. According to investigating officer Mangesh Pote, on
January 18, victim Ashok Parmar, a primary teacher with the Gujarati
municipality school in Mazgaon, was walking towards the Dockyard Railway
station, when three policemen cornered him. They brought him to the Mazgaon
police chowky opposite the court. The three allegedly threatened to book him
in a fake certificate racket and give wide publicity, even calling the
media, if he did not pay up Rs 3 lakh.

    "Parmar got scared and decided to get rid of them. So he called up a few
of his friends and managed a sum of Rs 90,000 which was paid to them. After
this, Parmar was released the next day on the condition that the remaining
sum of Rs 2.10 lakh would be paid soon,'' said Pote.

    Four days later, Parmar started receiving calls from the cops demanding
the balance money. He approached the ACB and registered his complaint. The
policemen kept harassing him and demanding the money. But when the ACB laid
a trap on different occasions, the trio never arrived suspecting foul play.
Then, the ACB tapped their conversation demanding the money from Parmar.
Based on this demand, the ACB arrested the trio.

    During the course of investigations, it was also learnt that Parmar was
not at all involved in any kind of fake certificate racket said the ACB.

    toireporter@timesgroup.com

ARRESTS THIS YEAR

    Crime branch constables Mahendra More and S Nimbalkar were trapped by
the ACB on January 5

    Constable Narayan Rane attached to the N M Joshi Marg police station was
caught accepting a bribe on January 15

    ACP Cyrus Davierwala (railway) was caught along with three businessmen
for forcing a police inspector to accept a bribe and do a favour for them

    DCP Shashikant Shinde's reader Santosh Kotwal was arrested accepting a
bribe of Rs 10,000 on January 24

    Three policemen were nabbed from the Nirmal Nagar police station for
extorting money from a tour operator on February 11

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