The two serving police officers held in the Rs 15-crore extortion case have been sent to seven days of police custody by a magistrate court on Tuesday. The police have also moved an application before the court seeking a non-bailable warrant (NBW) against former Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh also an accused in the case. If issued, it will be the third NBW against the former top cop.
The two police inspectors, Nandakumar Gopale and Asha Korke, who were arrested on Monday by the state Criminal Investigation Department (CID) were produced before the court while demanding their custody.
The Special Public Prosecutor in the case Shekhar Jagtap stated that they have found a connection between the arrested accused and also traced the 'Hawala operator' identified as Momin who allegedly received Rs 50 lakh from complainant Shyamsunder Agrawal's son.
Momin's statement has already been recorded and he accepted receiving the money, said Jagtap. While opposing Gopale's remand, his lawyer said that his client neither received any money nor the complainant has leveled any such allegation. While calling the allegations against Gopale absurd, his lawyer pointed out that it was mentioned in the FIR itself that "Gopale had asked DCP Akbar Pathan for Rs 50 lakh for not arresting Agrawal, how can a junior officer ask money from his superior, he questioned.
Gopal is currently posted at police training at Khandala while Korke is attached to the Local Arms division.
A reputed police officer from Mumbai police, Gopale was credited with solving many sensational cases. He investigated the IPL betting racket which led to the arrest of Gurunath Meiyappan, son-in-law of then BBCI president N Srinivasan. Gopale was also part of investigations of many other sensational cases including, the 26/11 terror attack case, Indian Mujahideen terror case, and journalist J Dey murder case.
Korke's lawyer has pointed out her clean record throughout her career while opposing the demand of custody and added that she has been cooperating with the investigation.
The police have also moved an application before the court for non-compliance of bail conditions by Sanjay Punamiya who was granted bail in the case. He was arrested in July along with co-accused Sunil Jain.
The Marine Drive police earlier in July registered an offense of extortion, threatening, and criminal conspiracy on the complaint by Mira Bhayandar-based developer Shyamsunder Agrawal who has multiple criminal cases registered against him.
As per his allegations, several crores of rupees had been extorted from him over several years for multiple reasons including not arresting him in an extortion case in which stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) was also pressed.
He also alleged that his former partner Punamiya was a ‘close aide’ of Param Bir Singh and had extorted several crores from him.
