Angadia extortion case: Suspended DCP’s relative arrested in Lucknow

The Mumbai crime branch, as part of its probe into the Angadia extortion case, arrested the brother-in-law of suspended deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Saurabh Tripathi in Lucknow on Tuesday

The Mumbai crime branch, as part of its probe into the Angadia extortion case, arrested the brother-in-law of suspended deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Saurabh Tripathi in Lucknow on Tuesday.

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Ashutosh Mishra, an assistant commissioner with Uttar Pradesh State Goods and Services Tax, is the fifth arrest in the case and was allegedly the ultimate recipient of the money sent from Mumbai on Tripathi’s instructions. A police team is bringing the accused to the city on transit remand after producing him before a local court.

Last week, the sessions court had rejected Tripathi’s anticipatory bail plea following which the crime branch sent teams in search of him as he has been wanted in the case for more than a month.

The Maharashtra home department had on March 22 suspended Indian Police Service officer Tripathi after he was named an accused in the extortion case.

The case is being investigated by the crime intelligence unit of Mumbai crime branch. It has arrested three officers – police inspector Om Wangate, assistant police inspector Nitin Kadam, and sub-inspector Samadhan Jamdade – who allegedly extorted ₹19 lakh from Angadias in south Mumbai last December on Tripathi’s instructions.

All three officers are in judicial custody. The trio were attached to LT Marg police station. The crime branch had on March 17 also arrested a 27-year-old domestic help, who was working for Tripathi’s parents in Lucknow, for allegedly receiving money which was sent from Mumbai through hawala on Tripathi’s directions.

According to a senior officer, a police team had visited Tripathi’s hometown in Gomti Nagar and questioned his parents and domestic help Pappu Gaud, and a few close relatives on March 17. Gaud confessed that he had collected ₹19 lakh on the directions of Tripathi, the officer added.

DCP Tripathi was named an accused after the key accused, Wangate, allegedly revealed his name in the interrogation saying that he was acting on Tripathi’s verbal directions. Tripathi reported sick a day after an FIR was registered at LT Marg police station and has gone incommunicado since then. Wangate, along with Kadam and Jamdade, were booked on February 18 following a complaint lodged by the additional commissioner of police, south region, Dilip Sawant.