Before the dust of the Telgi scam has settled down, Maharashtra Police finds itself in another awkward situation— it now has to interrogate the former chief of its Anti-Corruption Bureau and DGP (Housing) Rahul Gopal.The police had found Gopal with Pune-based broker Govind Chandok when they raided his Bhulabhai Desai road residence in South Mumbai. ACB officials had recovered Rs 1 lakh from Gopal when the police officer was in his official car (MH-01-BA-9001). The team also recovered Rs 1 lakh from the broker Chandok.According to the first information report (FIR), the ACB had information that Chandok was acting as a middleman for a few corrupt government officials.Wednesday’s raid followed a tip-off that the ACB had received from a builder Manish Pingle. The ACB had been told that Chandok was going to broker a Rs 1-lakh deal for helping in pushing through a police housing project. Chandok has now been remanded to police custody.Gopal was attached to the ACB as Additional Director General of Police before Dr P S Pasricha took over charge from him. ‘‘It is too premature to say anything at the moment. We will be calling in Gopal for recording his statement as he was there at the time of the raid,’’ DGP Pasricha told reporters on Friday. This embarrassment comes close on the heels of the Telgi scam which sent some of the state police’s top officers to prison.
