TOI : PIL on state CID corruption, HC seeks govt reply : Aug 17, 2007
PIL on state CID corruption, HC seeks govt reply
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Thursday directed the state to file an
affidavit in response to a PIL seeking to expose the corruption that’s
embedded in the state CID.
With allegations made in the PIL against Pune police commissioner Jayant
Umranikar while he was the then additional DGP of the state CID, the HC
directed the petitioner, a voluntary group, Citizens’ Organisation for
Public Opinion, formed by advocate Vineet Kanchan to make the police
commissioner a party to the matter, so that he can be heard before passing
any orders.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice D Y
Chandrachud heard the petitioner’s lawyer Subhash Jha and asked him if he
had impleaded Umranikar as a party. The judges directed public prosecutor
Usha Kejriwal to furnish the case papers relating to the corruption charges
after two weeks in court. The court asked the Pune police chief to remain
present in court on the next date, Kanchan’s lawyers said later.
The PIL cited two cases to highlight how state CID officers indulged in
corrupt practices, while investigating cases. The PIL in particular sought
to show how Umranikar and his family had travelled to Delhi from Pune last
April on air tickets bought by Sanjay Ranadive, a Pune resident, who runs a
travel agency, after he was arrested by the state CID and sent to the Bund
Garden police lock up in connection with a 2004 case. The PIL details the
case of Ranadive and states how the CID asked him to buy air tickets for
their “top boss” to secure his bail. It also mentions the allegedly
continuous demands of the CID officers, deputy superintendent of police V A
Shinde and others made to him.
The PIL has sought directions from the high court to the ACB, Mumbai to
conduct a probe in the complaints filed by Ranadive in June and July against
the CID. It also sought to direct the ACB to seize all papers concerning the
travel documents of the former additional DIG of the state CID. Reports of
how CID officers were accepting money from persons they arrested had been
appearing in the media and was even raised in the assembly earlier this
year. This resulted in an anti-corruption case being registered against
Shinde and two other CID officers.
Publication:Times Of India Mumbai; Date:Aug 17, 2007; Section:Times City;
Page Number:9
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