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2-day police remand for IPS officer in Rajasthan arrested for alleged extortion
Manish Agarwal, former Superintendent of Police of Dausa district, had taken over as SDRF Commandant in Jaipur last month.
An anti-corruption bureau (ACB) court in Jaipur on Wednesday sent Indian Police Service (IPS) officer and former Dausa superintendent of police (SP) Manish Agarwal to two days of police remand after his arrest on Tuesday for alleged involvement in an extortion racket, the bureau’s director general Bhagwan Lal Soni said.
Agarwal who had taken charge as Commandant of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) in Jaipur last month was arrested from his office on Tuesday.
“We will quiz him for two days to obtain details related to the case,” said Soni.
ACB officials said that the role of Agarwal’s family members is also under the scanner
“One family member of Agarwal was also in touch with the middleman who has been arrested. The family member used to demand money from the subordinates of Agarwal when he was posted in Dausa in lieu of transfers and other professional favours. We are obtaining the call records of the particular family member,” said an ACB official familiar with the development of the case.
The anti-graft agency officials claim that they have enough evidence against the accused IPS officer and two state services officers and one of his middlemen who were arrested on January 14 to prove that they worked in tandem to extort money from a road construction company owner and contractor.
“Sub-divisional magistrates (SDMs) Pinky Meena (Bandikui) and Pushkar Mittal (Dausa), Neeraj Meena, alleged middleman of the then Dausa superintendent of police (SP) Manish Agarwal, and the IPS officer targeted the complainant to extort money,” said another ACB official.
The official added that some chats from the mobile phone and locations of Mittal also prove that they were working in an organized manner to extort money.
Earlier on January 14, two sub-divisional magistrates (SDMs) Pinky Meena (Bandikui) and Pushkar Mittal (Dausa) and one Neeraj Meena, an alleged middleman employed by Manish Agarwal, were arrested in the same case.
During investigation, it was found that the IPS officer was involved in the extortion bid on the contractor in connivance with other government officials and a middleman. The lid was blown off the racket after a complaint was filed against some of the accused officers, according to an ACB officer.
Agarwal, a 2010 batch IPS officer of Jammu and Kashmir cadre, has a history of controversies.
In 2015, a case of corruption was registered against him and his reader by J&K ACB . The officer had allegedly demand bribe of ₹five lakh to release two suspects in a suicide case of a 21-year-old woman in Jammu. However, the case is pending due to lack of prosecution sanction.
His cadre was transferred from Jammu and Kashmir to the IPS cadre of Rajasthan on the ground of marriage with an IPS officer of Rajasthan.
In six-years of service in Rajasthan, he has been posted only twice as SP of districts. He served as Barmer SP for four months and then as Dausa’s police chief for six months. He was removed after complaints of corruption.
