Amboli police on Wednesday registered an FIR against a Deputy Commissioner of Police and two police inspectors for allegedly conspiring, intimidating and extorting extortion from a 50-year-old property dealer in Andheri.
The police officers named in the FIR include Deputy Commissioner Akbar Pathan and Inspectors Chimaji Adhav and Sunil Mane. Pathan was named as an accused in the extortion case registered at Marine Drive police station in July in which former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh is also a co-accused. Mane is currently in jail on charges of playing a key role in setting up a gelatin-laden Scorpio car outside Antilia, Mukesh Ambani’s official residence, and killing co-conspirator Mansukh Hiren.
No arrest has been made so far in this case. The complainant in the FIR lodged at Amboli police station is Gursharan Singh Chauhan. He told the police that between 20 October 2019 and 29 February 2020, the three police officers threatened to implicate him in a false case and demanded an extortion of 17 lakhs from him. “They used their informers to accept money on their behalf,” the police said.
According to the complaint, when the officials demanded more money and Chauhan refused to oblige, a case of cheating was registered against him at the MIDC police station and he was arrested. The case was later transferred to the Crime Branch, where Pathan was posted as the Deputy Commissioner of Police. Chouhan alleges that he was also assaulted by the officers during the investigation.
“Chouhan has claimed in his statement that the authorities have destroyed all evidence and threatened to kill him,” an official said. The property dealer had then approached the Andheri court, which had then directed the Amboli police to register an offence, following which his statement was recorded on Wednesday and he was accused of extortion, forgery, assault, criminal intimidation, destruction of evidence. And a case was registered under relevant sections of conspiracy.
When contacted, Pathan declined to comment. Adhav said, ‘I do not know Chauhan and have never met him. He (Chouhan) has said in his statement that some people took my name and extorted from them. I don’t know what happened and how much money he has given to those people.”
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