Top cop gets 3 years for taking bribe
A senior inspector of the Mumbai police was sentenced to three years
in prison and fined Rs 50,000 by a special sessions court on Monday after he
was found guilty of accepting bribe.
The incident dates back to June 2004 when Arun Digambar Kulkarni was
posted at Oshiwara police station. On June 10, 2004, Adam Ahmed Sorathiya,
an Andheri businessman approached the anticorruption bureau (ACB) of the
Mumbai police and complained that Kulkarni was demanding one lakh rupees
from him. Sorathiya had allegedly evicted an imam from a masjid at Andheri
and Kulkarni had threatened to book him for theft because the imam’s
personal items had been thrown out of the mosque.
Kulkarni called Sorathiya to the police station on June 8, 2004 and said
he was willing to drop charges against him if he was paid the bribe.
Sorathiya coughed up Rs 10,000 and agreed to pay Rs 50,000 in total. On June
10, 2004, when Sorathiya again went to the Oshiwara police station to pay
the remaining amount, ACB sleuths caught Kulkarni accepting the money.
Sources said Kulkarni’s wife was also present in the police station.
Kulkarni spent 10 days in police custody before getting bail. He retired
from police service in March 2006.
Judge D B Pujari relied on the testimonies of five witnesses, including
Sorathiya, and found Kulkarni guilty. TNN