SUSPENDED DCP Saurabh Tripathi who is an absconding accused in the angadia extortion case had asked police teams under his jurisdiction to “check on angadias” under the garb of cracking down on “terror funding’, said the chargesheet filed by the Mumbai Police last month. As per the chargesheet, Tripathi, who was made DCP zone II last year, had allegedly been demanding Rs 10 lakh per month from the angadias if they wanted to continue their business in his zone. The crime branch probe stated that after the angadias refused to pay that amount, it was on Tripathi's instructions that three officers from the LT Marg police station picked up angadias under the pretext of checking their bags and took money from them. The officers, as per the chargesheet, had threatened the angadias that they would make a complaint against them with Income Tax officials if they were not paid. The FIR in the case was registered on February 20 after additional commissioner of police (south region) Dilip Sawant conducted an enquiry into the matter following a complaint by the angadias to the Mumbai Police Commissioner in December. Sawant had sent a questionnaire to Tripathi seeking his response to questions related to the allegations against him. Responding to a question on the instructions he had given to junior officers regarding angadias, Tripathi said that since in the first week of December there were terror alerts owing to the anniversary of Babri Masjid demolition and the fact that the Zaveri bazaar area had been the target of bomb blasts in the past, he had asked officers from the Anti Terror Cell of the police stations under him in the last week of November to check if the angadia network was being misused for terror funding. However, the investigation by the crime branch later revealed that this order was issued in September and Tripathi had allegedly manipulated the date to make it seem that the order was issued weeks before the incident. The angadias had alleged that police officers collected money from them in the first week of December on four separate dates. So far, the police have arrested five persons, including three cops, and are on the lookout for Tripathi and his father who have been named as wanted accused.
