Mumbai: Cops catch corporator for octroi extortion bid

A Republican Party of India (RPI) corporator from Chembur was arrested by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) sleuths on Thursday after he refused to co-operate with the cops in a case registered against him by an octroi agent six months ago.

The complainant alleged that corporator Babasaheb Bansode had intercepted four trucks carrying cloths in Chembur and demanded Rs2 lakh from him. The trucks were coming from Gujarat.

The octroi agent had approached the ACB in June. “The truck had passed the octroi naka and had paid all the legal charges but Bansode asked to see octroi receipts and told he has some doubts over authenticity of the receipt. Bansode then allegedly demanded Rs2 lakh from the truck drivers,” said ACB officers.   

“The truck drivers then contacted the truck owner in Gujarat who told his octroi agent to look into the matter. Bansode also demanded money from him,” said an ACB officer.

“We laid a trap in a hotel where Bansode was supposed to collect the money. Bansode did not come into the hotel and stayed some distance away from the hotel in his car and left without taking the money. But we had recorded his conversations with the complainant,”  said additional commissioner of police Niket Kaushik (ACB).

“We sent several correspondents to Bansode to come to the ACB office and give his voice sample. But he did not respond,” said ACP Pandurang Shinde.

“We arrested Bansode from his residence and produced him in a court on Tuesday. He was remanded in police custody for two days,” said Shinde. His voices sample has been sent to the Forensic Sciences Laboratory in Kalina.