The city crime branch arrested assistant GST commissioner Ashutosh Mishra, 37 in connection with angadia extortion case. Mishra brother-in-law of now suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Saurabh Tripathi has been arrested for allegedly receiving the extortion money which was sent via hawala channels, said crime branch.
Mishra is the fifth accused to be arrested in the case, earlier the crime branch had arrested Tripathi's house help Pappu Gaud, 27 along with three officers of L T Marg police station.
According to the police, Mishra was arrested for allegedly receiving extortion money which was sent from Mumbai via hawala channel. The probe so far revealed that Mishra was allegedly in touch with Tripathi using Goud's SIM card, said officials.
The assistant GST (Goods and Services Tax) commissioner who is in Sales Tax department was arrested from Basti destrict of Uttar Pradesh (UP) on Tuesday. He was produced before a local magistrate court which granted his three days of transit remand. Mishra is currently being brought to the city and likely to arrive on Friday, said crime branch official.
Several crime branch teams had been to UP in search of Tripathi however he was no where to be found, last time the crime branch team found his house in Lucknow to be locked and there was no sign of DCP's parents either, while his wife is staying with her parents not far from the DCP's house.
Tripathi, 2010 batch IPS officer was made a wanted accused in the case after the crime branch established money trail. Police claimed that a middle man accepted of taking around ₹6 lakh from arrested inspector Om Wangaate, of which ₹5 lakh were sent to Lucknow via an angadia and was accepted by Gaud, while the remaining ₹1.5 lakh had been recovered the middle man.
The case pertaining to robbery and extortion was registered on February 18 based on complaint from angadia association which claimed that DCP demanded ₹10 lakh per month to "allow" them to run their business. They also claimed that three officers from L T Marg police station extorted ₹18 lakh - ₹20 lakh from few angadias after threatening to book them or tip the Income Tax (IT) department about their illegal activities.
