THANE: In a major embarrassment to the police department, the Thane police commissioner on Wednesday suspended three officers and seven constables from Mumbra police station and set up a departmental inquiry against the ACP and senior inspector for allegedly "extorting" Rs 6 crore from a local toy dealer.
Sources said the action came after a letter written by the dealer and his partner earlier to the home minister and police chief went 'viral' on social media on Sunday.
Faisal Memon and his partner Shaikh Ibrahim Pasha had written on April 25 that on the midnight of April 12, 10 cops, including inspector Geetaram Shewale, sub-inspectors Raviraj Madane and Harshad Kale, and seven constables, "raided" Memon's apartment in the Bombay Colony area in Mumbra in connivance with a few persons. The incident ended with the cops "extorting" Rs 6 crore.
Sources said during the so-called raid, the police found Rs 1 crore each in 30 boxes. They told Memon it was "black money" and took away the boxes to the Mumbra police station and kept them in the senior inspector's cabin.
When the dealer approached the cops, they asked for Rs 2 crore to hush up the matter. But later, they took Rs 6 crore from the seized money, returned the remaining Rs 24 crore and shooed away Memon.
In the initial inquiry by Avinash Ambure, DCP (zone 1), prima facie involvement of the 10 cops have been found. Considering the circumstances, departmental inquiry has been launched against the ACP as well as the senior inspector of Mumbra police station too.
"We are taking down the statements of the people involved," said a senior police officer. The suspended cops include Shewale, Madane, Kale, and constables Pankaj Gaikar, Dilip Kirpan, Pravin Kumbhar, Ankush Vaidya, Nilesh Salunkhe and Jagdish Gavit.
