Court relief for DCP was short-lived

After more than a year of being reinstated and posted with the Anti-Terrorism Squad, Deputy Commissioner of Police Pradeep Sawant may be again tried for his alleged involvement in the multi-crore stamp paper scam.

After more than a year of being reinstated and posted with the Anti-Terrorism Squad, Deputy Commissioner of Police Pradeep Sawant may be again tried for his alleged involvement in the multi-crore stamp paper scam.

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In June 2007, the Pune Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court discharged Sawant and two officers as it had not found sufficient evidence against him.

“They now have eight weeks to file an appeal,” CBI prosecutor Raja Thakare told Hindustan Times.

Thakare said Sawant had been charged with omission and dereliction of duty after he failed to act against Assistant Police Inspector Dilip Kamath, who was found at the stamp scam accused’s house.

Sawant was arrested on January 7, 2004 — a year after his subordinates were allegedly found with stamp scam accused at his Colaba residence while he was supposed to have in custody.

The main accused in the scam Abdul Karim Telgi was in Mumbai Police’s custody between November 2002 and January 2003. During this time, some of the police officers had allegedly gone soft on him.

Deputy Inspector General Subodh Jaiswal, who was then heading the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the multi-crore scam, had walked into Telgi’s flat on January 7, 2003, and he saw the police officers along with Telgi at his Colaba house.

Jaiswal had written to Sawant and had informed him about his subordinates but the latter allegedly did not act on it. Though Sawant was granted bail in August 2004 after having spent almost eight months behind bar, it was only in June 2007 that he was discharged by the Pune MCOCA court.