The anti-corruption bureau (ACB), Mumbai, has arrested the head of the Shivaji Nagar police station, Mumbai, red-handed on Tuesday night while allegedly accepting a Rs 1 lakh of the total bribe of Rs 2.5 lakh that he had allegedly demanded from a school’s trustee in lieu of providing police services for helping him in a legal matter.
Senior police inspector Bapurao Madhukar Deshmukh, 57, was caught red-handed on Tuesday night at his own police station.
According to the ACB, the complainant in the case is a 41-year-old trustee of a trust that runs a school in the Shivaji Nagar area.
On August 15, 2024, some people had broken the lock of the gate of the said school and forcibly entered the premises over some dispute. The complainant trustee had filed a complaint with the Shivajinagar Police Station regarding the dispute and also with the Charity Commissioner.
The complainant had sought police action from Deshmukh and also requested him to provide police protection from the opponents.
In order to help the complainant and to prevent the opponents from entering the school premises of the said trust until the final order from the Charity Commissioner’s office came and also in lieu of providing police protection, Deshmukh demanded a bribe of Rs 3,00,000 from the complainant, the ACB stated.
After mutual discussion the bribe amount was finalised to Rs 2.5 lakh. But, as the complainant was against giving any bribe for legitimate police work, he approached the ACB and filed a complaint. After due verification the ACB initiated a bribe trap proceeding and on Tuesday night caught Deshmukh red-handed while accepting Rs 1 lakh as the first instalment of the bribe amount from the complainant trustee at his own police station, an ACB officer said.
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Deshmukh, a Class 1 officer, was due for his retirement in a year. He has been arrested under relevant sections of the Prevention of Correction Act.
Under the guidance of ACB additional commissioner Sandeep Diwan, additional DCPs Anil Gherdikar and Rajendra Sangale supervised the trap.
Deshmukh would be produced in court on Wednesday.
ACB may soon also initiate a procedure to look into the properties of Deshmukh to check if he has amassed properties disproportionate to his known sources of income, an ACB source said.