Friday, 14 February 2014

Voice match nails 27 of 36 cops caught in sting taking bribes

Voice match nails 27 of 36 cops caught in sting taking bribes
Video grabs from the sting operation showing the policemen taking bribes
6 samples were found to be inconclusive. The remaining three policemen, though seen in the video, had not uttered a word.

The noose tightened on Friday around 36 policemen caught in a sting operation, one of the biggest ever targeting the Mumbai police, in April last year in Kurla. 

Of the 33 voice samples sent to the Kalina Forensic Lab, 27 have matched with the voices of the cops captured on tape accepting bribes to allow reconstruction of a hutment in a Kurla slum. 

Six samples were found to be "insufficient for analysis" and therefore inconclusive. The remaining three policemen though seen in the video, had not uttered a word. 

The Kalina Forensic Lab submitted its report on Friday in a sealed envelope to the Bombay High Court, which is monitoring the probe into the case. 

Mumbai Mirror is in possession of a copy of the report. 

A division bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice M S Sanklecha, after going through the FSL report, observed that the matter was serious and needed further investigation. 

The court was hearing a public interest litigation filed by a certain Mohammed Kasim Khan seeking legalisation of a refugee colony in Kurla. When Khan snared the cops demanding bribes for allowing illegal repairs of a hutment in the same colony and produced the audio-video evidence before the court, the HC directed the police to submit a status report. 

The then Mumbai police commissioner Satyapal Singh ordered an inquiry, directing Deputy Commissioner of Police Lakhmi Gautam to submit a report. In August, Gautam submitted his report, noting there was prima facie case against the 36 cops. 

Khan had caught the police personnel from the Nehru Nagar police station accepting bribes ranging between Rs 200 and Rs 7,500 between March 9 and 26 last year. A few days later, in April, the sting operation was made public. All the policemen were suspended immediately. 

Khan had offered the bribes to save an illegal structure erected by his friend Prakash Naval. As Khan started offering bribes to the policemen, the word spread and more and more cops started approaching him, threatening action unless they were paid. Khan ended up spending Rs 34,000 on the 36 policemen. 

Khan's petition seeks formation of a Special Investigating Team, noting that police and civic officials often target vulnerable slum dwellers for one reason or the other. The HC will now hear the case on February 27. 

Sources said the Anti-corruption Bureau that carried out the investigations in the case had approached Satyapal Singh in December last year, seeking his sanction to prosecute these policemen. While Singh has since resigned and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party, the case will be one of the priorities of the new police commissioner.

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