Journalism of Courage
Thane police have arrested three officers of the Pune City Police for allegedly robbing a businessman of Rs 45 lakh. The 59-year-old businessman had lodged an FIR with the Narpoli police station on March 10.
The arrested police personnel have been identified as Ganesh Balasaheb Shinde (35), Ganesh Maruti Kamble (34) and Dilip Maruti Pilane (32), all attached with the Dattawadi police station. An alleged hawala agent, Babubhai Rajaram Solanki (47), of Balaji Nagar in Pune has also been held in the case.
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The police said the complainant was transporting hawala cash of Rs 5 crore from Nashik to Mumbai. Solanki is a family member of the complainant and also allegedly works as a hawala agent. After learning about the transportation of cash, Solanki allegedly passed on the information to the three policemen at Dattawadi police station.
The three policemen reportedly left Pune on the night of March 7 and reached Bhiwandi in the early hours of March 8. They then allegedly intercepted the complainant’s four-wheeler near a petrol pump on the Mumbai-Nashik highway in Bhiwandi. They asked the complainant to show the cash and then allegedly took Rs 45 lakh from the tranche before allowing him to leave, police said.
The businessman then went to Mumbai to deliver the remaining money while the three police officers returned to Pune and reported for duty the next day. Meanwhile, after discussing the issue with his contact in Nashik, the businessman lodged the FIR at Narpoli police station on March 10, police said.
Senior Inspector M S Ballal said, “During investigation, we arrested Solanki and produced him before a court on Saturday. The court remanded him to our custody for five days for further investigation. As the probe confirmed the role of the three policemen in Pune, we arrested them on Saturday night in the robbery case. Further investigation is being conducted. We have booked the accused under sections 392 (robbery) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.”
