Gujarat: Two cops booked for extorting over Rs 50 lakh from gambling accused trio to botch up case

The cops allegedly recorded the gambling act and threatened to expose the recordings, following which the accused agreed to pay the money demanded by the former.

Ahmedabad: Two policemen including an inspector have been booked for allegedly extorting over Rs51 lakh from three persons who were caught in a gambling case in Morbi district. The suspected policemen after taking the money removed the names of the three accused and replaced them with fake names in the FIR and fabricated evidence.

An FIR was filed with Tankara police station in Morbi district on Thursday against police inspector Y K Gohil and head constable Mahipat H Solanki following an inquiry conducted by State Monitoring Cell, Gandhinagar. The FIR states that on October 26, inspector Gohil along with his team had caught a group of nine people red-handed gambling in a resort located in his jurisdiction.

The cops allegedly recorded the gambling act and threatened to send the recordings to news channels. The accused requested the cops not to do so citing their reputation in the society. The FIR mentions that the cops took three persons from the group, who were the most influential ones, outside the hotel room and settled for a bribe of Rs 51 lakh.

Subsequently, after allegedly receiving the money the accused policemen filed an FIR removing these three names and showed three fake names in its place. Since the offense was bailable, all were released from the police station itself. Later, the police sent a press note to media houses stating that nine persons were caught gambling and seized two SUV cars and cash over Rs 6 lakh from the spot. The incident was also reported in the local media.

The FIR mentions that the accused cops- Gohil and Solanki-both transferred to different districts- took Rs 12 lakh from one Vimal Padariya's friend Sumit Akbari. The rest Rs 41 lakh and Rs 10 lakh from releasing them before the news-media, not sending their photos in newspapers and social media.

After the accused cops received the bribe money, they showed fictitious names of Ravi M Patel, Vithalbhai Patel and Basarbhai P Parekh as accused instead of Tirath A Faldu, Vimal R Padariya and Bhaskar P Parekh who had been caught red-handed along with six others.

Sources said that these persons whose names were changed by the accused cops belong to influential families of Rajkot. One of them is a locally known jeweler. The case is said to have reached the state government following which SMC was directed to inquire. The cops have been booked for extortion, among other charges under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and sections of prevention of corruption act.