ACB Catches Sr Inspector Taking Bribe, Later Finds He is a Crorepati
The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Friday caught Anand Chavan, senior police inspector of Kherwadi police station, accepting a bribe of Rs 20,000 from a hotelier. Later in the day, ACB officials searched various locations in the city and Pune and recovered assets worth more than Rs 1 crore allegedly owned by Chavan.
The ACB has arrested Chavan and charged him with owning assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.
ACB officers say they found Chavan owns three flats, a shop and a godown in Mumbai and Pune. They also recovered Rs 1.12 lakh from his Mahim flat and sealed it along with a flat each in Pune and Dharavi.
The ACB says Chavan had built a gymnasium at his Mahim flat with equipment worth Rs 4 lakh. They also seized more than 750 grams of gold jewellery worth Rs 6 lakh belonging to his wife and diamonds worth Rs 2.30 lakh. At his Dharavi flat, they found a plasma TV worth Rs 1 lakh.
The ACB has seized two cars—a Ford Ikon and a Hyundi Santro—owned by Chavan.
They are going through his bank accounts and also accounts of 14 credit cards recovered from his Dharavi flat.
The ACB says Chavan had demanded a bribe of Rs 5 lakh from hotelier Chirag Bhatt for not arresting 11 of his employees in a case of rioting on March 3.
All 11 worked as waiters at Bhatt’s Celebrity Hotel and Hero Bar in Bandra. Bhatt lives in the same area.
Another Bandra resident had filed a complaint against the waiters after an altercation, and the police had detained the 11 men.
The ACB says Bhatt negotiated the bribe amount and Chavan agreed to release the waiters for Rs 1 lakh.
“On Friday morning Bhatt, as decided earlier, went with Rs 20,000 as a partial payment to Chavan’s office in Kherwadi police station. As soon as Chavan accept the bribe, we arrested him in the presence of independent witnesses,” says Vilas Tupe, additional deputy commissioner of police, ACB.
According to the ACB, Chavan had also demanded a bottle of an international brand of whiskey along with each installment of the bribe amount.
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