Policemen held by ACB for accepting a measly Rs 1,000

Tuesday, August 26 1997

Policemen held by ACB for accepting a measly Rs 1,000

EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

NAGPUR, Aug 25: The station in-charge and an head constable of Bhadrawati police station in Chandrapur district were arrested by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) authorities on Saturday, while accepting bribe of Rs 1,000 for stalling action against a person.

Anandrao Lingaji Katkar, API, and head constable Narayan Ganpat Jeevtode reportedly demanded bribe of Rs 1,500 from complainant Vasant Manohar Pattiwar (26) to stall action against him on a complaint lodged by a Dalit woman.

The woman, Sandhya Narayan Meshram of Bengali Refugee Camp, had lodged a complaint against Pattiwar for using abusive and casteist language and giving a threat to her life.

Pattiwar runs a grocery shop in the camp area. On the basis of this complaint, the Bhandrawati Police had registered an offence under Sections 294 and 506 (B), IPC.

Pattiwar and his friend Raju Sabane visited the Bhadrawati police station on Thursday, where Jeevtode told Pattiwar that the police intended to register further offence under the SC/ST Atrocities Act against him which would lead to his arrest.

Pattiwar begged Jeevtode to save him. The head constable then suggested Pattiwar to pay Rs 2,000 to the station in-charge if he wished to avoid trouble. Pattiwar agreed to pay money but requested a lower amount.

Jeevtode agreed and asked him to pay Rs 1,500. Pattiwar immediately paid Rs 500 which he had on his person and said he would pay rest of the money on Saturday.Pattiwar later met his friends who told him to lodge a complaint with the ACB. A complaint was lodged and the ACB, after verification, laid a trap at the police station on Sunday evening.

Pattiwar and a panch went to API Katkar, who during a discussion asked Pattiwar to meet Jeevtode and clear the matter. When the duo went to Jeevtode, he accepted Rs 1,000 from Pattiwar.

The ACB authorities caught Jeevtode and Katkar red-handed and arrested them later. Offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act has been registered against the duo. The operation was carried out by Suresh Kokate, ACB deputy superintendent, Naik and inspector Madhukar Patil.