Cops-turned-dacoits held

MUMBAI, JULY 31: Four city policemen and an advocate were arrested by the Pant Nagar police on Friday for an armed dacoity in which they ...

MUMBAI, JULY 31: Four city policemen and an advocate were arrested by the Pant Nagar police on Friday for an armed dacoity in which they looted Rs 15.42 lakh from a businessman on May 15 this year.

According to the Pant Nagar police, the police quartet included constable Mahesh Ramrao Ghadge and three drivers including Dattatreya Kashinath Chavan, a general branch driver, Vilas Kalmore, a driver at Gamdevi police station and Iqbal Yusuf Patel, a driver at the Chembur police station.On May 15, the four followed a businessman, Kammurthy Narsinhappa Raju, who had withdrawn Rs 15.42 lakh from the Central Bank of India in Hingwala Lane at Ghatkopar West and boarded a taxi for Kurla. After chasing Raju from Kurla, the quartet8217;s cab managed to intercept Raju8217;s taxi near Maharashtra Weigh Bridge at Kurla where they assaulted him and threatened him with dire consequences. They decamped with the loot in a taxi later.

Surprisingly, the businessman never lodged a complaint with the police, as the quartet keptclaiming to be policemen themselves while beating him up.However, senior police inspector Prakash Aade of the Pant Nagar police said, 8220;Our informant had tipped us off last week that such an incident had taken place and some policemen are involved in the robbery. From then on we began tracking them and landed our first catch, Ghadge, on Thursday night.8221;The first hurdle the police encountered was to convince Raju to lodge a complaint of the offence, which he did after a lot of persuasion. Thereafter the police arrested Ghadge. Ghadge8217;s arrest led to the arrest of the other three personnel.

After the arrest of the quartet, the police were baffled to know that an advocate, Mahindra Jain, and a journalist from a Hindi eveninger, were also involved. The advocate had learnt of their crime but demanded a price to keep quiet or else he would report the matter to the press.

The quartet then had to share the loot with the advocate and the journalist. Each of them kept Rs 2.5 lakh and rest of the money was given tothe advocate and the journalist. The Pant Nagar police have recovered Rs 2.5 lakh from the cops-turned-dacoits.

According to Aade, the quartet were charged with several counts of Indian Penal Code including robbery, kidnapping and assault. The police have also arrested Jain, though the journalist is yet to be arrested. Following the arrest and subsequent confessional statements of the four, they were suspended from service. 8220;We have recommended their dismissal under Section 311 of the Indian Constitution. It is now upto the higher authority to take action, 8216; Aade added.

The four were produced before the 31st court at Vikhroli and remanded to police custody until August 12. The police hope to recover more cash from them during the course of their investigation.