Two cops among three held for demanding money to withdraw fake rape charges

Mumbai: Three persons, two of them policemen, were booked for allegedly demanding Rs 50 lakh from a real estate agent for withdrawing a rape complaint against him which later turned out to be fake, Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) said on Tuesday. [caption id=“attachment_1651721” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Two cops among three were booked for extortion and graft. PTI[/caption] During an ACB trap, accused Assistant Police Inspector (API) Subhash Samant of Khar police station escaped with Rs 20,000 in cash by jumping off his first floor residence in suburban Bandra last evening, an official said. After a probe, Samant, his associate, Police Inspector Mahendra Nerlekar and one Vicky Arora were charged under Prevention of Corruption Act and also relevant sections of the IPC as the accused had tried to implicate the victim in a false rape case over a property dispute, said Additional Commissioner of Police (ACB) Vishwas Nangre Patil. According to ACB, the complainant, a real estate agent, has an office, owned by Arora, at a commercial building in suburban Khar. Arora wanted to evict him from the premises. As part of a plan, Arora took the victim to a party at a farmhouse in Dahanu near here on 4 June, where after being intoxicated, he was photographed and captured in CCTV footage getting intimate with one of the three girls brought by Arora. One and a half months later, the complainant was summoned by Samant who showed him “a rape complaint” lodged by the girl at the police station. It was later discovered that the complaint was fake, Nagre-Patil said. Samant directed the agent to speak to his colleague Nerlekar, who promised to settle the matter for Rs 2 lakh. However, Samant later told the complainant he must vacate his office and also pay Rs 50 lakh to be given to the girl. The agent approached ACB, which laid a trap where the victim agreed to pay Rs 10 lakh. He was called by Samant to his Bandra residence at around 6 pm. However, on spotting the ACB officials, Samant hurriedly collected the cash (Rs 20,000 which was presented as Rs 10 lakh by stuffing plain papers). Nerlekar, Samant and Arora were booked for cheating, extortion and also on graft charges, ACB said. PTI