Rs 31k ‘extorted’ from jeweller in Mumbai: Court rejects interim bail plea of three GRP cops
The men in their pleas claimed to have been falsely implicated and said that there was a delay of five days in filing the FIR
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The court said that their custodial interrogation was essential to bring out the truth. The pre-arrest pleas of Rahul Bhosale, Lalit Jagtap and Anil Rathod were rejected (Archive)The anticipatory bail application of three policemen of the Government Railway Police (GRP), who were suspended for assaulting, threatening and extorting money from a Rajasthan-based jeweler, was rejected by a sessions court on Tuesday.
The court said that their custodial interrogation was essential to bring out the truth. The pre-arrest pleas of Rahul Bhosale, Lalit Jagtap and Anil Rathod were rejected. Additional sessions judge Prashant Kale said that if they are granted relief, they will know that they are well-protected.
“Generally, interrogation in such a condition would reduce to a mere formality,” the court said. An FIR was filed against the three based on a complaint by a jeweller at Mumbai Central railway station regarding an incident which allegedly took place on August 10. The jeweller alleged that when he and his daughter were traveling to Rajasthan from Mumbai, a police personnel without an identity badge, approached them and asked them to open their bags for inspection. The complainant had said that the police found Rs 31,900 in cash and a gold piece of 14 grams. It was alleged that they were taken to a room for an “inquiry” about the cash and they were threatened with jail. The jeweller alleged he was made to sign a paper and while the gold was returned along with Rs 1,900 cash, Rs 30,000 was kept by the police.
The men in their pleas claimed to have been falsely implicated and said that there was a delay of five days in filing the FIR. Additional public prosecutor Ashwini Rayakar opposed the plea stating that the delay was due to the jeweller travelling back to his hometown in Rajasthan and then approaching the police, following which the case was transferred to Mumbai. Rayakar also submitted that there is an established procedure in place for conducting checks with an entry to be made in the register, which was not done by the errant policemen. She also said that while the search was to be carried out under CCTV surveillance, this search was done inside a room, claiming that this showed the “ill intention” of the accused policemen.
The GRP has placed the men under suspension.
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