Mumbai court acquits 3 in extortion bid of senior IAS officer

Special Judge A M Patil, while pronouncing the order on Wednesday, said that of the three meetings allegedly held between the accused and the informant (Mopalwar), the presence of the former IAS officer could not be established in the ‘first meeting’ held near a toll plaza as the call data records did not support the prosecution’s case.

The court also said that CCTV footage of the ‘second meeting’ held at a resort did not show that there was any discussion or conversation between the accused and Mopalwar. On the ‘third meeting’ held at a city hotel, the court said Mopalwar had said that he had used a spy camera to record the meeting and its footage was submitted to the police. The court said this could not be treated as secondary evidence as proper procedure was not followed in transfer of the footage from the spy camera to prove its authenticity. The court said that these instances have created doubts in the prosecution’s case, the benefit of which needs to be given to the accused. The court pronounced that none of the charges against the three were proven.

Among those who deposed in the case were Mopalwar and former Thane commissioner of police Param Bir Singh, who was the sanctioning authority for prosecution under MCOCA.

Police had claimed that Mopalwar had come in touch with Mangle during a marital dispute with his estranged wife. Police had alleged that in 2017, Mangle had orchestrated the broadcast of certain audio clips related to Mopalwar, alleging corruption. After the clips surfaced, the Maharashtra government had appointed a three-member committee to probe graft allegations and sent Mopalwar on forced leave.

By the end of 2017, Mopalwar was given a clean chit by the committee after forensic analysis could not conclude if the voice in the audio clips belonged to him. The analysis had concluded that the clips were edited. The clips given by the police for analysis were sourced from a TV channel and were not the original raw clips.

Meanwhile, the IAS officer alleged that Mangle was threatening to defame him and demanding Rs 10 crore, based on which the couple and Tambe were arrested. During the trial, defence lawyer Apeksha Vora had submitted that the trio was falsely implicated at the behest of Mopalwar. The detailed order is yet to be made available.