A man who allegedly helped his chain-snatcher friend by disposing of a chain the latter had stolen got two policemen arrested after they demanded a bribe of Rs30000 from him. The two constables, identified as Nilesh Devrukhakar and Sukhdev Shegar alias Jigar of the detection staff in Borivli railway police, were demanding money from the victim (name withheld) for not arresting him in the case.
The police said the bribe victim is into catering business in the Borivli area. As per the complainant, the railway police had arrested one Raju Patil, a chain-snatcher a month ago and recovered a stolen chain from him. Probe revealed that the caterer had allegedly helped Patil in disposing of a stolen chain.
Following this, the two constables summoned the caterer for questioning during which “they allegedly demanded a bribe of Rs30000 for not arresting him,” said an anti-corruption bureau (ACB) officer. When the caterer told the two constables that he would not be able to pay them the huge amount, they lowered the bribe amount to Rs25000. “However, the complainant could manage to give them only Rs15000, while expressing his inability to pay the remaining Rs10000,” the officer added.
Soon after, the constables began demanding the remaining Rs10000 from the caterer and threatened to take action against him if he failed to cough up the remaining amount. Harassed with their constant demands, he then approached the ACB and lodged a complaint against the two constables.
Acting on the instructions of the ACB sleuths, the complainant waited for the two constables to call him back for the bribe money. This time, however, the complainant did not to state his inability to pay up. Instead, he told them that the money was ready.
As decided by them, a dealing spot was decided at Andheri station. Accordingly, the ACB laid a trap at the spot and apprehended Devrukhakar and Shegar while accepting bribe of Rs10000. The ACB will produce them in a court on Monday and seek their police remand.
