Police get last chance to probe charges against DIG

The Mumbai Police just got their last chance to investigate corruption charges against Deputy Inspector General of Police, Hemant Nagrale, reports Urvi Mahajani.

The Mumbai Police just got their last chance to investigate corruption charges against Deputy Inspector General of Police, Hemant Nagrale.

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Nagrale (now on deputation as chief vigilance officer of the Maharashtra State Electricity Board) is accused by his wife Pratima of having property and financial transactions disproportionate to his known source of income.

On Wednesday, the court gave the police their last shot at getting to the bottom of the matter.

A division bench of Justice BH Marlapalle and Justice Roshan Dalvi asked why they should not transfer the probe to the Anti-Corruption Bureau.

In February, Pratima had approached the court alleging harassment and torture by her husband. She alleged Nagrale was using his influence to mentally and physically harass her, and gave details of his alleged disproportionate investments.

Her petitions showed several lakhs deposited in and withdrawn from Pratima’s account, which she had not been operating.

Nagrale denied the allegations saying all his income and property details were contained in the income tax returns that he filed. His counsel Shirish Gupte argued he has been filing returns every year.

“All the properties mentioned in the petition are of three types: joint family, his own property and property owned jointly with his wife,” Gupte said.

He added that all this had begun as a matrimonial dispute and has now turned into this slew of allegations.

“These are just fishing inquiries (sic) being made by the petitioner (Pratima) in a matrimonial dispute,” Gupte said.

The court clarified that it would restrict itself to the allegations in the petition, and that the matrimonial dispute will take its own course.