MUMBAI: A week after two cops were arrested for allegedly trying to extort money from angadias or traditional couriers, the advocate of the third accused, inspector Om Vangaate, told an additional sessions court that while the complainant had named the zonal DCP, his client has been made a scapegoat.
“The police department has made these junior officers scapegoats and is trying to protect a senior officer. The original complaint of December 7 is against DCP Saurabh Tripathi and officers of L T Marg and V P Road police stations. Video clips produced by the crime branch before the court only show angadias enter the police chowky and nothing is established of any exchange of money with my client who has been victimised in the false case,” advocate Ashok Sarogi told additional sessions Judge R M Sadrani, who is hearing Vangaate’s anticipatory bail plea.
The DCP in whose jurisdiction the trio was posted has already been shifted to an insignificant posting.
Complainant rewarded me last month: Cop on the run
The sessions court on Friday heard the arguments of the defence and the police, and may pass an order on Monday.
Sarogi also told the court this January, the same complainant had given a reward to Vangaate and his team for recovering Rs 8 crore that was stolen from a jeweller’s firm. “If there was a complaint of extortion against Vangaate in December, then how did they reward him in January?” argued Sarogi.
The police argued they have arrested two policemen and their investigations are at a crucial stage, and they need Vangaate’s custodial interrogation to proceed with the probe. “Nobody is being protected and I am assuring the investigations will be carried out in a free and fair manner,” said a senior police official.
Meanwhile, the 37th Metropolitan Magistrate S B Bhajipale rejected the bail applications of the two police inspectors—assistant police inspector Samadaan Jamdaade and sub-inspector Nitin Kadam—arrested in the extortion case and sent to judicial custody.
DCP Tripathi was unavailable for comment.
The case pertains to a complaint filed by the members of the Angadia Association of Bhuleshwar who alleged that the L T Marg as well V P Road police were detaining them illegally and were forcibly taking away part of their cash belongings. Following the complaint, the commissioner of police directed the additional commissioner of police Dilip Sawant to probe the case. Last week, Sawant submitted a report confirming the complaint.
