Pune’s civic body official demands monthly bribe,booked for extortion

Deputy engineer allegedly demanded Rs10,000 per month from a restaurant owner to avoid action

An official of the anti-encroachment department of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) was booked for extortion on Wednesday. The complaint against him was lodged by Manish Hegde, 47, who owns a restaurant called Meghdoot on Kondhwa road in Bibwewadi.  

The accused is a deputy engineer at the anti-encroachment department of PMC, identified as Kishore Padal. Hegde alleged that when Padal reached his restaurant, he asked Hedge to pay ₹10,000 per month in order to avoid an enquiry from his department. When Hegde refused, the officer arrived at the his restaurant with a team of staff from PMC’s anti-encroachment department. Upon arrival, the staff members seized a defrost machine and wooden counter at the entrance of the restaurant. Without stopping at that, the staff members then broke a steel counter, twenty chairs and five tables from the restaurant. The accused then went on to pick up the chairs and tables from the restaurant and left without providing any receipt or document proving the work to be an official move, according to the complainant.  

The manager and the staff working at the restaurant were also verbally abused by the accused. He also threatened an enquiry under Section 53 (power to require removal of unauthorised development) of Maharashtra Regional Town Planning, 1966, if they refused to let him take things from their restaurant.  

"If you visit Gangadham chowk, you will see that the restaurants there have kept chairs outside, on the footpath. While the restaurant is located in a legal space, the chairs are on public property," said police inspector (crime) (PI) VS Deshmukh of Market Yard police station, who is investigating the case. "The restaurant owner told us that he has a CCTV installed on the premises, but it was switched off on the day of the incident," PI Deshmukh added.  

On May 5, Padal was assaulted by a man identified as Rajabhau Bhujbal, who claimed to be a worker in the office of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) corporator Shrinath Yashwant Bhimale. Bhimale is a three-time corporator from Pune and is also the leader of the house at PMC. When asked, Bhimale had denied knowing Bhujbal. A case against Bhujbal was registered at Shivajinagar police station.

A case under Sections 384 (extortion), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees) of Indian Penal Code (IPC) was registered against the officer at Market Yard police station.