Missing links: SIT zeroes in on trio

From petty forgers to bureaucrats, police officers to politicians, the net in the fake stamp scam has widened as the probe intensifies. Next...

From petty forgers to bureaucrats, police officers to politicians, the net in the fake stamp scam has widened as the probe intensifies. Next in line for questioning are the owner of two petrol pumps in Mumbai’s suburbs, the trustee of one of the city’s most well-known temples and a race course bookie, sources told The Indian Express.

All three individuals, allegedly linked to the diversion of funds collected from policemen, will soon be summoned by SIT. The trio is suspected to be the missing link between police officers who allegedly collaborated with Telgi and individuals in the Home Department to allow them a free rein. Investigators who are putting the jigsaw together are coming around to the view that pay-offs from Telgi were allegedly used by police officers to bribe their way into lucrative postings and longer-than-usual tenures.

‘‘Interrogation of the arrested policemen suggests they used huge amounts extracted from Telgi for their transfers,’’ said a senior SIT official. As per rules, proposals to transfer IPS officers have to be moved from the office of the DGP to the CM’s office via the Home Department. It is in this context that questions have arisen about posts held by policemen allegedly linked to the scam. Pradeep Sawant, the encounter guru now under custody, had the longest tenure in the Mumbai Crime Branch.

For a non-IPS officer who worked his way up, Sawant served in a post where all his predecessors were IPS officials, handling high-profile cases for three years each as ACP and then as DCP. Three of his subordinates in the Crime Branch, API Dilip Kamath, Inspector Vashist Andhale and Inspector Dattatray Dhal, are under arrest for alleged Telgi links. Another, ACP Ramakant Padwal, is under suspension. And his immediate superiors, JCP Sridhar Vagal and former police commissioner R.S. Sharma, are also in jail.

Investigators have already questioned former DGP Subhash Malhotra, Additional DGP T.K. Chaudhury and the former Home Minister’s private secretary S.K. Bankar. SIT has also summoned Bhujbal’s nephew Sameer who handles his businesses, including an educational trust run by the ex-Deputy CM. Sameer, currently overseas, was summoned twice by SIT and has been given an ultimatum to present himself by January 14.