Mumbai police in Delhi to verify clout claims by accused in IAS-IPS posting scam

Mumbai city news: The arrested man, Ravindra Singh Yadav, allegedly boasted that he was in touch with Central ministers.

A team of Mumbai crime branch officials has reached Delhi to verify claims of an arrested man in connection with a government posting scam. Ravindra Singh Yadav, who is from Delhi, allegedly boasted of his contacts with central ministers.

Crime branch officials are also scrutinising chat and call records of five arrested people. (HT)

Crime branch officials are also scrutinising chat and call records of the five arrested people. According to police, they duped several IPS and IAS officers by offering them plum postings.

On May 31, the Mumbai crime branch raided a five-star hotel near domestic airport in Vile Parle (East) and arrested four men: Vidyasagar Hirmukhe, 47, a deputy secretary and general manager of Mahanand Dairy; Vishal Ombale, 40; Kishor Mali, 38 ;and Ravindra Singh Yadav. The fifth man identified as Kamlesh Kanade was arrested on Sunday. He was in touch with Hirmukhe.

The five men are in police custody till June 7. Mali is from Solapur and Ombale from Pune. They have known each other from a long time and visited Delhi together earlier when they met Yadav.

The scam was unearthed when a couple of weeks ago Mali learnt that Solapur superintendent of police Namdev Chavan wanted to be transferred to Navi Mumbai, said a source. Mali promised him that he can help.

“Mali spoke to Chavan several times told him that the ‘main boss’ ( referring to Ravindra Singh Yadav) had come from Delhi and was staying in a hotel near the domestic airport in Mumbai. The meeting was fixed and they decided to meet on May 31 evening,” said the official.

During their telephonic conversation, Chavan suspected something was amiss, so he alerted a senior officer of the crime branch. A police team laid a trap at the hotel and nabbed the four men. They also found Rs6.70 lakh with the men.

“Yadav has used names of several ministers of Delhi to show his influence during the meeting with Chavan. He claimed that he is into real estate business so a police team has gone to verify his claims,” said the official.