More than five months after the Angadia extortion case hit the headlines, police have made no headway in locating the prime accused – suspended deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Saurabh Tripathi.
The crime branch has issued a lookout circular against the absconding officer and even dispatched teams to his hometown in Uttar Pradesh multiple times. But Tripathi continues to remain off the radar.
“Now we are not in a hurry to arrest Tripathi. Let him run as much he wants; one day he himself would surrender, as he is not going to get anticipatory bail,” a crime branch officer said.
The crime intelligence unit of the crime branch is probing the matter.
The officer further said police commissioner Vivek Phansalkar recently took a review of the case.
On December 7, 2021, Yogeshbhai Gandhi, Jatin Shah, Madhusudan Rawal, Maganbhai Prajapati and others of Bhuleshwar Angadia Association met additional commissioner of police Dilip Sawant and filed a complaint. They alleged that three policemen had extorted ₹19 lakh from Angadias in south Mumbai in December 2021 on Tripathi’s instructions. The association is in the transport business.
Sawant then conducted an inquiry and based on his report, a case was registered at LT Marg police station on February 18 against three police officers – Om Wangate, Nitin Kadam and Samadhan Jamdade.
Tripathi, who was the DCP of zone 2 at that time, went incommunicado the very next day. He was named as an accused on March 15 after Wangate allegedly revealed his name in his interrogation, saying he acted on Tripathi’s instructions.
Wangate and the two other officers were subsequently arrested. The sessions court on May 9 granted the trio bail.
On March 22, the state government suspended the DCP.
“The inquiry revealed that the police officials had on December 2, 3, 4 and 6 wrongfully restrained and extorted money from Angadias in Paphalwadi by threatening to report them to the income tax department,” the FIR said.
The crime branch arrested Triptahi’s brother-in-law Ashutosh Mishra and domestic help, Pappu Gaud, who had allegedly received the extortion money in Lucknow sent through an Angadia from Mumbai. Gaud is now out on bail.
Police in April also booked Tripathi’s father Nilkanth, claiming that the retired government officer too had collected the extortion money in Lucknow sent by Tripathi from Mumbai.
Tripathi’s anticipatory bail plea was rejected by the sessions court in the first week of April. He thereafter approached the Supreme Court requesting to transfer the case from Mumbai police to the Central Bureau of Investigation but later withdrew the petition.