IAS officer extortion case: Court found several lacunas in prosecution case

A special court in Mumbai has acquitted a detective agent, his wife and a friend of extortion charges due to several gaps in the Thane police probe, which was based on the complaint of an IAS officer. The court questioned the police's delay in registering the complaint and observed that they should have registered it before laying a trap. The court also found no evidence of the involvement of underworld gangster Ravi Pujari, who the police had claimed was behind the extortion. The detective agency was alleged to have demanded INR70m ($963,000) from the IAS officer.

MUMBAI: A special MCOCA court has questioned the action taken by Thane police in registering an extortion case based on the complaint by IAS officer Radheshyam Mopalwar against a detective agent, his wife and a friend. The court said the delay raised suspicion about the prosecution case and therefore acquitted the trio.

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The special MCOCA court on Wednesday acquitted Satish Mangle and his wife Shraddha and Mangle’s friend Atul Tambe of the charges of extortion, citing several lacunas in the probe conducted by the Thane police.

As per the prosecution case, Mopalwar had recorded all his conversations and meetings with Mangle, wherein the former had allegedly asked for money.

Mopalwar had approached encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma, who was posted at Thane at the relevant time and showed him the tapes. Based on this, police laid a trap to catch the accused red-handed in the meeting which was to be held in a seven-star hotel in Juhu.

The court questioned this and observed, “Police heard the audio-video recording of the informant and then they came to the conclusion that there is a threat to the life of the informant and his daughter and therefore they decided to lay a trap first. When the police found that they had received the information as to the cognizable offence then it was the duty of the Police to register the offence first and then lay the trap. It is not the case under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. Moreover, there is no explanation given by the prosecution as to why they did not register an offence first.”

Besides, the police invoked the charges of MCOCA claiming that underworld gangster Ravi Pujari was behind this. The court however found that the prosecution failed to bring any evidence to show the involvement of the gangster.

“Prosecution failed to establish the connection between these accused and Ravi Pujari. Even the prosecution failed to prove that the CDs of the recording of the so-called call between the informant and Ravi Pujari was having the voice of Ravi Pujari. In such circumstances, it is very difficult to conclude that the accused are having organised syndicate of criminals along with Ravi Pujari,” the special court said.

“Voice recording of Ravi Pujari was not sent to the FSL. Investigating officer did not obtain the voice sample of Ravi Pujari when he was extradited to India,” the special court further said.

The court has also disbelieved the tapes recorded by Mopalwar as the tapes were not immediately seized by the police nor were immediately sent for forensic examination. The tapes were seized almost a month after registration of the case and were sent for forensic examination another month later.

As per the prosecution case, Mopalwar was posted as vice president and managing director of Maharashtra Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) Limited. It was alleged that Mopalwar was fighting a divorce case against his wife since 2013.

At that time Satish was running a detective agency under the name of Shirley Detective Agency. Mopalwar came in contact with Mangle through his friends and sources for assistance to his case.

It is alleged that there arose disputes between Mangle and his friend through whom Mopalwar had approached Mangle. After which it is alleged that Mangle started demanding money from Mopalwar. The prosecution alleged that Mangle had gathered several video and audio tapes, some of which he allegedly gave to news channels and later began blackmailing Mopalwar.

The prosecution claimed that the Mangle couple began threatening Mopalwar of defaming him with alleged call recordings of several calls of Mopalwar with others if he failed to give them ₹7 crore.