Maharashtra officer suspended over graft charges: Did detective leak ‘incriminating’ tapes as revenge?

Senior bureaucrat Radheshyam Mopalwar said the audio clips were doctored and denied all allegations against him.

A dispute with a private detective whose help he had sought while he was divorcing his second wife could be behind the leak of the voice tapes that have landed senior bureaucrat Radheshyam Mopalwar in trouble.

Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis moved swiftly on Thursday to relieve Mopalwar of the responsibility of executing his pet project – the Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway. (HT File)

On the tapes that went viral on social media – Hindustan Times could not independently verify their authenticity -- Mopalwar is heard, among other things, asking for a bribe.

Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis moved swiftly on Thursday to relieve Mopalwar, who was a complainant-turned-accused in the Telgi stamp paper scam case in 2009, of the responsibility of executing his pet project – the Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway.

Fadnavis said Mopalwar, who was vice-chairman of the MSRDC, would hold no post until the inquiry into the allegations was completed. Mopalwar said these audio clips were doctored and denied all allegations against him.

There are as many as 32 unverified audio clips of telephone conversations mostly between Mopalwar and a former aide, Satish Mangale. One audio clip that has gone viral allegedly has Mopalwar talking about rates and money to be given in Mantralaya to clear file for a developer. The other conversations also have indiscreet references to black money, settling matters in exchange for money, and giving huge sums of money – Rs5 crore and Rs 12 crore -- to his kin.

He refused to comment on the nature of his relationship with Mangale.

However, the Mangales tell a different story. While Satish was unavailable for comment, his wife Shraddha said, “My husband Satish Mangale, who ran a detective agency until 2012, was hired by Mr Mopalwar to handle a personal matter, a divorce case with his second wife. After the two parties reached a certain monetary settlement, Satish was asked to handle this as well.’’ Satish has reportedly been in hiding since August last year when he was “kidnapped” for two days. The Mangale family filed a police complaint in this case in September last year in Satara.

Shradha said her husband had recorded calls made to Mopalwar and his family as part of due diligence.

The Mopalwar-Mangale association ended in 2015, but things went awry later after a former associate of Satish’s told Mopalwar about the recorded calls, claims Shraddha. She also claimed that all police cases against her husband and her were false and filed after they filed an FIR of attempted kidnapping.