The police inspector Om Wangate arrested for allegedly demanding extortion from angadias or traditional couriers has been granted four days of police custody by Esplanade court on Friday. Wangate surrendered before the Criminal Intelligence Unit (CIU) of the Mumbai crime branch on Thursday evening after the Bombay High Court refused to grant him pre arrest bail.
Wangate along with API Nitin Kadam and PSI samadhan Jamdade all attached to the L T Marg police station were booked for allegedly demanding extortion from angadias on February 18. Soon after the offence was registered, Kadam and Jamdade were arrested but Wangate remained out of reach. He initially approached Sessions court for anticipatory bail and later moved to HC.
In their allegations the angadia association have also named DCP Saurabh Tripathi of zone 2 for his involvement. After the offence was registered Tripathi was transferred to the post of DCP operations however Tripathi has since then went on a leave and yet to take the charge.
In their allegations the angadias association have claimed that the arrested officers had detained few angadias on multiples occasions in the month of December and allegedly extorted over ₹40 lakh from them by threatening to book them or tip the Income Tax department about their activities.
The member of their association met then Mumbai police commissioner Hemant Nagrale and complaint about the illegal activities of the policemen. The commissioner then ordered the additional commissioner of police of South region to investigate the allegation, the additional commissioner Dilip Sawant is also the complainant in the case.
