Domestic help of accused IPS officer arrested in Angadia extortion case

A 27-year-old domestic help, who was working at deputy commissioner of police Saurabh Tripathi’s parents’ residence in Lucknow, has been arrested in connection with the Angadia extortion case

Mumbai A 27-year-old domestic help, who was working at deputy commissioner of police Saurabh Tripathi’s parents’ residence in Lucknow, has been arrested in connection with the Angadia extortion case.

The accused, Pappu Kumar Pyarelal Gaud, was produced in Esplanade court in Mumbai and remanded to police custody till March 28 for further investigation (HT File)

The accused, Pappu Kumar Pyarelal Gaud, was produced in Esplanade court in Mumbai and remanded to police custody till March 28 for further investigation. Tripathi is still wanted in the case and police teams from the crime branch are looking for him at various places in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra.

A police team had visited Tripathi’s hometown in Gomti Nagar and questioned his parents and domestic help, Gaud and few other close relatives. During interrogation on March 17, Gaud confessed in his statement that he had collected ₹19 lakh on the direction of Tripathi, added the officer. Gaud was arrested the same day and his transit remand was taken from local court. He was brought to Mumbai late on Saturday and was produced in the court on Sunday morning.

The case is being investigated by the Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU) of Mumbai crime branch, which has arrested three officers -Wangate, Kadam, and Jamdade. All three are in judicial custody.

As per the preliminary investigation, the key accused, police inspector Om Wangate, along with his two officials, API Nitin Kadam and PSI Samadhan Jamdade, had allegedly extorted ₹19 lakh from Angadias in south Mumbai last December under Tripathi’s instruction.

Police sources said that the total amount was later sent by Vangate to Lucknow through a hawala operator and Gaud allegedly received the money. During the search, the police recovered ₹1.5 lakh from Gaud and further interrogation is on to find out the rest.

Gaud’s previous mobile phone, which was used to communicate with Tripathi at the time of receiving the money in Lucknow, has not been recovered yet.

DCP Tripathi was named as 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 leave a day after the FIR was registered at LT Marg police station and has gone incommunicado since then.

Wangate, along with Kadam and Jamdade of LT Marg police station, were booked on February 18 following a complaint lodged by the additional commissioner of police, South region, Dilip Sawant.