Court rejects cops’ interim bail, no arrests made yet

THANE: Whether the five policemen from Naupada station, allegedly involved in demanding extortion from scrap vendors, will be arrested or not is still not clear despite the Thane sessions court rejecting their interim bail.
Some from the business community have raised questions about the delay in arresting the policemen for misusing their position. “The policemen had applied for anticipatory bail, but it has been rejected.However, it is surprising that action is yet to be taken,” said a businessman.
Public prosecutor Sangeeta Phad said that the five policemen, including assistant police inspector Nitin Patil and constables Rajendra Nikam, Prakash Patil, Sandeep Shirke and Police Naik Kishore Thorat extorted money from scrap vendors. Taking them in police custody is necessary, she said. Sources said that scrap vendor Ruplal Khemji Patel (30) registered a case against the sleuths from the detection branch of Naupada police station also alleging that he was illegally detained for two days on false charges of selling stolen utensils.
Patel alleged that during his detention, he was beaten up by the policemen, who initially took Rs 19,900 from him. Later, they forced him to name another scrap vendor Harjilal Patel in the case and extorted Rs 4 lakh from him.
The victims approached joint police commissioner V V Laxminarayana who directed the Naupada police to register a case against the policemen. Meanwhile, the case was handed over to the anti-extortion cell after which the policemen applied for interim bail.
Officers from the anti-extortion cell remained unavailable for comments despite repeated attempts.