Sr inspector caught accepting bribe

MUMBAI, NOV 19: A senior police inspector of the Crime Branch, hero of the November 16 arms haul at Cotton Green, was yesterday caught red-h...

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MUMBAI, NOV 19: A senior police inspector of the Crime Branch, hero of the November 16 arms haul at Cotton Green, was yesterday caught red-handed while accepting a bribe of Rs 50,000 from a beer bar owner.

The head of unit-I of Crime Branch, Prabhakar Babar, and an accomplice identified as one Shivprasad Shetty, were picked up by Anti-Corruption Bureau (ABC) sleuths from Happy Night Bar and Restaurant in Colaba just seconds after the money had changed hands.

Only a few days back Babar’s unit was widely acclaimed for seizure of a huge cache of arms, believed to be a part of the consignment that had arrived in Mumbai days before the March 1993 serial blasts. Babar has been placed under suspension till an enquiry against him is completed by the ACB.

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The complaint against Babar was filed by the owners of Happy Night Bar, Dharamveer Puri and Pravin Batra. Babar was a regular at their bar since 1995 when he was a senior police inspector attached to the Arms and Ammunition department at the policeheadquarters, Crawford Market. The complaint said that while he never paid his bills, he also made it a point to make his presence felt by behaving rudely with waiters and customers.

Last year Babar was transferred to the Unit I of the crime branch, but his visits to the bar and the misbehaviour continued. When Babar’s presence in the bar began becoming intolerable, Batra offered to provide him a bottle of wine every day to have at home.

Babar, however, didn’t take kindly to the offer and began issuing threats to Batra on phone. Last week, the senior police inspector demanded over Rs 1 lakh from Batra and his partner. When they expressed their inability to pay such a huge amount, Babar threatened to get them killed in an encounter or through a gangster.

Batra contacted ACB on Tuesday and lodged a complaint with them. A trap was laid for Babar the same day, but Babar didn’t turn up. ACB laid a trap for Babar again on Wednesday and as Babar’s accomplice Shetty accepted the marked currency notes from Batraand went to hand the money over to Babar who was sitting at a different table, the ACB officers swooped down and arrested the duo.

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Among other evidence, ACB also has tapes of recorded telephonic talks which Babar had with Batra and Puri. The duo were produced in the court of additional metropolitan magistrate, C L Thool and were released on bail. Advocate Shrikant Bhat and Advocate Ashok Shahani represented Babar, while Shetty was represented by Advocate Dharmendra Rohra.