Broker held for taking bribe for cops
S Ahmed Ali

A real estate agent who was demanding Rs 10 lakh from a builder to
get him off the hook in a case of cheating registered by the Mumbai crime
branch, was caught red-handed by the anti-corruption bureau (ACB) on
Thursday.

    Interestingly, the complainant in the case, Krishnamilan Shukla alias
Baba, is a builder who has been named as an accused in a multi-crore SRA
scam which is being investigated by the crime branch. Underworld don Dawood
Ibrahim's sister Hasina Parkar is a co-accused in the case.

    The agent Chandresh Chimanlal Shah (50), who has been arrested, was
caught by the ACB when he came to collect the first instalment of Rs 1.5
lakh from Shukla at Hotel Ramdev in Sion. According to the ACB, Shukla, who
is based in Vashi, had filed a complaint with the ACB that Shah was
demanding Rs 10 lakh which he claimed was to be paid to assistant police
inspector Rajendra Nikam and senior inspector Anil Mahabole of Unit 1.

    ACB is now making inquiries to find out whether Shah was demanding the
money on behalf of any police officer. Additional commissioner of police
(ACB) Pradyna Sarvade said, "We are not ruling out anything at this moment
as our officers are still recording statements and making inquiries. It will
be too premature to say anything at this stage.''

    The other side of the story which the crime branch is probing is that
Shukla has been accused of defrauding a rival builder Vinod Avlani of Rs 30
lakh. The case dates back to 2006 and involves an SRA project at Antop Hill
in Wadala.

    According to sources, at least eight members of one society had
approached the same agent, Shah, with a proposal of developing the project
at Wadala. Interestingly, among the eight members, underworld don Dawood
Ibrahim's sister Hasina Parkar was one. The remaining members include Shah,
Sanjeev Shukla, Krishna Shukla and four others identified as Shameembhai,
Salim, Maqsood and Arshad. The police are now inquiring into the underworld
involvement in this.

    Shah had roped in Vinod Avlani and Jayesh Shah for developing the
project. Jayesh Shah issued 10 demand drafts of Rs 10 lakh each which were
given to the eight members through Avlani. But the project could not
materialise and they had to drop it, said senior inspector Anil Mahabole.

    Later, all the members returned the demand drafts except Shukla who
refused to return the money. When repeated attempts to recover the money
failed, Avlani filed a complaint with the crime branch. "Summons were sent
to all the members and we had even recorded the statements of three members
but three members were refusing to come to the crime branch,'' Mahabole
said.

    ahmed.ali@timesgroup.com


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