Three Kota cops suspended for extorting bizman

Three policemen, including a circle inspector of the Kishorepura police station, were suspended in Kota following a complaint from a Gujarat-based trader, who accused them of extorting ₹12 lakh from him.

Superintendent of police (Kota city) Anshuman Bhomiya issued the suspension order. Bhomiya said Hasmukh Giri, the trader, had given a complaint. In the complaint, Giri said that he runs a finance company. On July 10, two employees of his company were returning to Gujarat after collecting ₹35 lakh cash from Kota.

“When circle inspector of Kishorepura police station, Heeralal Meena and two police constables, Mukesh and Javed, got information about the employees carrying cash, they stopped their vehicle and threatened to complain about the cash to the income tax (I-T) department,” he said. Citing that the I-T department will tax the money at 20% rate, the policemen allegedly sought a cut from the employees to let them go. The policemen allegedly took ₹6 lakh each in two instalments. “They were demanding more money when the trader decided to complain to the SP office,” Bhomiya said.

The SP said that the accused policemen neither informed I-T department nor the police about the cash. All the three policemen, including the circle inspector of Kishorepura police station, were suspended with immediate effect, he said, adding that deputy SP (circle 4 of Kota city) has been asked to probe the matter. Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) Kota has arrested a woman junior engineer, the secretary of watershed department and a sarpanch for accepting bribe worth ₹43,000 from a contractor in Kota on Wednesday.

Deputy SP ACB, Kota, Chandrasheel Thakur said that a contractor named Faruque complained to the ACB that he had constructed an anicut (water harvesting structure) in Mawasa gram panchayat in Kota for which he was to receive ₹5.40 lakh from the watershed department. While the rest of the payment was made, ₹2.40 lakh was due for which a bribe of ₹45,000 was demanded by junior engineer Priti Sain and ₹9,000 was demanded by the secretary of the watershed department, Suresh Kumar ,and ₹9000 for the gram panchayat, Ramesh Kumar.

The ACB team laid a trap and the contractor called up the secretary, Suresh Kumar asking him to come to Aerodrome circle to get the money. He was caught redhanded by the ACB. Later Sain was also nabbed .

Meanwhile, Kaithoon Police nabbed Kumar. Thakur said that the signatures of all the three were required for issuing the cheques.