Ten police officers attached to Mumbra Police Station under Thane City Police Station were suspended on Wednesday and a departmental investigation was opened against them for allegedly extorting Rs 6 crore from a toy trader and builder last month.
The suspended officers have been identified as Inspector Gitaram Shewale, Sub-Inspectors Ravi Madane and Harshal Kale as well as Constables Pankaj Gaikar, Jagdish Gavit, Dilip Kirpan, Praveen Kumbhar, Ankush Vaidya, Lalit Mahajan and Nilesh Salunkhe.
The departmental investigation against them will be led by the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone I), Thane Police.
The 10 officers, along with three private individuals, had raided the home of Faisal Memon, a builder and toy dealer from Mumbra, on April 12.
Police said they had received a tip that Memon was in possession of a huge amount of unaccounted-for money. During the raid, a sum of money worth Rs 30 crore was seized from his house.
A person named Shaikh ibrahim Pasha in a complaint alleged that the defendant forcibly took Rs 6 crore from Memon to cover up the matter.
Pasha had filed a written complaint with Thane Police Commissioner Jaijeet Singh on April 25. The letter was also addressed to the office of the Chief Minister and the Home Office. According to sources, after checking the facts, the 10 men were suspended and a departmental investigation was ordered against them.
The letter dated April 25 said that around noon on April 14, some officers from Mumbra police station came to Memon’s home and carried out searches. They seized cash worth Rs 30 crore, which the letter said was Memon’s ‘hard-earned money’.
The letter alleged that the police team brought 30 boxes containing Rs 30 crore in cash to Mumbra police station while accusing Memon of hoarding black money. He added that to remove the case, the officers demanded half of the money from Memon, who in turn, agreed to pay Rs 2 crore.
The police then allegedly told him that they would take Rs 2 crore from the boxes and return the rest. However, the letter added that the police had taken 6 crores of rupees and returned 24 cases of cash. When Memon asked about the rest of the money, the defendant threatened him, assaulted him and demanded to leave, the letter says, asking for an FIR against the officers.
“…The money was kept in the chief inspector’s cabin for counting and all can be seen in the CCTV footage,” the letter reads.
Jaijeet Singh said: “Three officers and seven men have been suspended. A departmental investigation has been ordered against all the suspended personnel. The Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone 1) will lead the investigation. He added that no offense has yet been recorded in this regard.
