DCP’s assistant held for accepting bribe
Mumbai: The anti-corruption bureau (ACB) of the Mumbai police on We d n e s
d ay caught a subinspector redhanded while accepting a bribe of Rs 10,000
from a hotelier. The accused has been identified as Santosh Kotwal who is a
reader (assistant) to the deputy commissioner of police (zone 8) Shashikant
Shinde.
According to the complainant, Ravi Pandey-who is the manager of Hotel
Liberty at Golibar in Santa Cruz East-PSI Kotwal regularly raided his hotel
and harassed his customers. At times, Kotwal even allegedly forced the
customers to shell out money after threatening to arrest them.
“When I asked him why he was harassing us, he said Mera kuch karo (Do
something for me)”. Finally last week, Kotwal told Pandey that he should
pay him Rs 10,000 per month to avoid further raids. Tired of the harassment,
Pandey on Tuesday approached the ACB, who laid a trap and arrested Kotwal.
The arrest has also raised questions as to how Kotwal (31), who just
completed his probation recently, became the assistant to DCP Shinde. The
ACB is now investigating if any other official in the DCP office was
involved in this extortion racket.
Asked for comment, DCP Shinde said, “I was out. I don’t know about the
trap but I have been changing my readers regularly and Kotwal was my fifth
reader in this office”.
Interestingly, Pandey had earlier complained against senior inspector of
the social service branch, Kisan Agarkar. Agarkar was suspended last month
after a departmental inquiry found Pandey’s charges to be true.