Angadia extortion case: HC grants anticipatory bail to Saurabh Tripathi

Tripathi, 39, had approached the high court after his anticipatory bail application was rejected by the sessions court on October 19.

Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Tuesday granted anticipatory bail to suspended deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Saurabh Tripathi, who has been booked in the Angadia extortion case.

The CIU had opposed his anticipatory bail plea, arguing that though there was no incriminating material against Tripathi in the charge sheet, there was a remark that a few incriminating articles were required to be seized from him and hence his application should not be allowed. (HT PHOTO)

A single-judge bench of justice Bharati Dangre granted relief to the IPS officer on the grounds that he had cooperated with the investigators and his custodial investigation was not required.

Tripathi, 39, had approached the high court after his anticipatory bail application was rejected by the sessions court on October 19.

In his plea before the HC, Tripathi claimed that he was falsely fabricated in the case because of a departmental vendetta.

His counsel, advocate Vinod Chate, said the case was registered following an inquiry but the IPS officer was neither named in the probe report nor in the FIR registered on February 18 against three police officers at LT Marg police station.

Chate claimed that Tripathi was named as an accused on March 9 – on the third remand application of the three arrested officers by the Criminal Intelligence Unit (CIU) the Crime Branch – due to the pressure exerted by then city police commissioner Sanjay Pandey. Pandey’s action came after Tripathi refused to head an investigation against former CP Param Bir Singh, he said.

Also because of Pandey’s pressure, the advocate said, the CIU arrested Pappu Gond, a maid at the house of Tripathi’s parents in Lucknow, and the IPS officer’s brother-in-law Ashutosh Mishra, an assistant commissioner of state GST in UP.

Both of them were accused of having accepted in Lucknow the extorted money sent through Angadias, but subsequently, Gond was discharged for want of evidence. The call detail record collected by the CIU showed that Mishra was not present in the UP capital on the day, but at Basti, around 200 km from Lucknow.

The CIU had opposed his anticipatory bail plea, arguing that though there was no incriminating material against Tripathi in the chargesheet there was a remark that a few incriminating articles were required to be seized from him and hence, his application should not be allowed.

On November 4, a vacation bench of the HC had granted the IPS officer interim protection from arrest after he promised to cooperate in the investigation. It had directed his release in the event of arrest on a personal bond of ₹25,000.

On Tuesday, justice Dangre was informed that pursuant to the directions of the vacation bench, Tripathi had thrice appeared before the investigators, voluntarily surrendered his mobile phone, and answered all the questions fielded to him.

After hearing the submissions, the HC granted him pre-arrest bail.

The case pertains to the allegations by members of Bhuleshwar Angadia Association that three police officers attached to LT Marg police station had in December 2021 extorted money from them on Tripathi’s instructions.