Angadia extortion case: Bombay HC grants interim protection to suspended DCP Saurabh Tripathi till Nov 15 

Saurabh Tripathi. File pic

The Bombay High Court on Friday granted interim protection from arrest till November 15 to suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Saurabh Tripathi, an accused in an extortion case.

A vacation bench of Justice N R Borkar directed Tripathi to cooperate with the investigation and appear before the police on November 9. The court posted his pre-arrest bail plea for hearing on November 15.

Tripathi, a 2010-batch Indian Police Service officer, had moved HC after a sessions court rejected his anticipatory bail plea.

The LT Marg police, in south Mumbai, had registered an extortion FIR on February 19 against four policemen, including Tripathi.

An inspector, an assistant inspector and a sub-inspector attached to LT Marg police station were arrested in the case. They are out on bail now.

Tripathi in his plea said he was innocent and alleged he was implicated in the case by the then Commissioner of Police Sanjay Pandey with a prejudiced mind and vendetta against applicant for not heading the Special investigation Team against ex Commissioner of Police Parambir Singh.

Also Read: Two Mumbai cops arrested in extortion case reinstated

"The investigating agency is relying upon the statements of angadiya operators and their agents in order to falsely implicate the applicant (Tripathi). It is important to note the said angadiya operators / their agents were already holding grudge against the applicant as the applicant was not letting them conduct their illegal activities smoothly and repeatedly refused their attempts to bribe him," the plea said.

The 'angadia' system is a century-old parallel banking system in the country where traders send cash, generally from one state to another, through a person called angadia or courier.

As per police, the accused detained some angadia businessmen from Bhuleshwar area in south Mumbai for four days and extorted money under the pretext of taking action against them and also threatened to inform the Income Tax department about their business transactions.

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