Inspector on the run in bribery case

Jagtap was produced in court on Tuesday and remanded in police custody for three days.

The verification process of a bribery complaint against an assistant police inspector (API) took a dramatic turn when the API took the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) by surprise by confining the complainant to a hotel room. The API allegedly asked an accomplice not to let him go until he pays the money. The accomplice, a journalist, was arrested when the complainant’s sister handed over the money to him but the API, who appears to have got wind of the trap when he was on his way to collect his share, has fled, ACB officials said. ACB said they arrested the journalist for accepting the money on the API’s behalf.

ACB officials said the complainant, , a Pune resident, approached them on Monday and alleged that Babarao Hangirge, API of Khalapur police station, had demanded money. “The complainant’s brother-in-law working in a Zilla Parishad primary school in Khalapur was arrested in a case of outraging a woman’s modesty last week. The complainant alleged that Hangirge, who had already taken Rs 1 lakh from him, was demanding at least Rs 50,000 more for helping his relative get bail, and for not assaulting him in police custody or sending a report to the Zilla Parishad recommending his suspension,” said an ACB officer.

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Acting on ACB instructions, the complainant contacted Hangirge so that the ACB could record the conversation and verify the allegations. Hangirge, however, asked the complainant to meet him in person in Khalapur. The complainant, tailed by ACB officers in plain clothes, met Hangirge at the Khalapur junction.

“Hangirge, on learning that he did not have the money, took him to a hotel in Khalapur. Hangirge then called Deepak Jagtap, a journalist with a local publication and told him to confine the complainant to the hotel room till he coughed up the money. Our officers, who witnessed the entire incident, reported it to us. The complainant called his sister and asked her to get the money. She came to us, and we gave her the money, which she took to the hotel. As soon as Jagtap accepted the money, we moved in and arrested him,” said Deputy Superintendent of Police Sunil Kalgutkar, ACB, Raigad.

With the sleuths listening in, Jagtap called Hangirge and told him that the money had been received. Hangirge told him to take his share and to keep the rest aside, and that he would reach the place soon. The ACB officials lay in wait for Hangirge to come for the money. Hangirge, however, did not turn up.

“News of Jagtap’s arrest spread in Khalapur. We suspect that one of the locals called up Hangirge either to tell him about the development, or ask him about it, which alerted him. He switched off his phone a short while later and has been absconding since. We are trying to trace him and apprehend him,” Kalgutkar added. Jagtap was produced in court on Tuesday and remanded in police custody for three days.

gautam.mengle@expressindia.com

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Bribery