2 Maha cops held by Anti-corruption Bureau in Rajasthan while on hunt for accused in Nigerian email fraud

The Crime branch officers who were arrested by ACB Udaipur. Pic/Hanif Patel

The Maharashtra and Rajasthan police are in a showdown, over the arrest of two Crime Branch cops from the Mira Bhayandar Vasai Virar (MBVV) police commissionerate, after the arrest of a wanted accused in Udaipur. The Crime Branch says their personnel were falsely implicated and ACB officers did not follow SOPs before placing them under arrest on Saturday in Udaipur.

A Senior Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) officer of Rajasthan police told mid-day that the two crime branch personnel from MBVV police - API Gyaneshwar Jagtap and head constable Prashant Patil - were arrested with R4.97 lakh cash in their possession. However, their crime branch boss said their policemen who had gone to arrest a cheater, Deepak Sethia, have been falsely implicated.

"While investigating a fraud case involving a Nigerian registered at Arnala police station in 2018, we arrested a few accused. During interrogation, they named Deepak Sethia who was the mastermind in the Nigerian fraud case. Sethia is a local journalist in Udaipur, where our team of three, including an API and two constables arrested him," said DCP (Crime) Dr Mahesh Patil.

Rs 4.97 lakh cash was found in the bag. File pic

"After Sethia was placed under arrest at his house, he started faking health issues like high blood and called around six-to-seven journalist friends to his house. Later, the officer (Jagtap) and constable (Patil) took Sethia in a hired vehicle. Sethia's friend also sat in the same car," DCP Dr Patil said.

"The other constable sat in another car brought by Sethia's journalist friends. Both the cars were headed to the nearest police station to apprise local cops of his arrest, when a van intercepted them," DCP Dr Patil said. The other constable was not arrested.

Another crime branch officer told mid-day that before getting ready to sit in the car, Sethia had told the crime branch personnel that he wanted to take some clothes with him. The officer said Sethia got into the car with a bag which had his clothes. The money was found in this bag with the clothes which was kept under the driver's seat.

Not shown documents'

"The ACB claims to have recovered Rs 4.97 lakh but they are not showing us any documents. Our team arrested Sethia at 1.30pm and ACB intercepted their vehicle and arrested them at 4pm. It is more than 24-hrs since then but they have not registered an FIR. Both the policemen were also produced before a local court without an FIR," said the officer.

"There was no pre-trap panchnama, no proof of voice recording to substantiate their claims that money was demanded, no powder (chemical) was used in the currency to prove that money was given by Sethia to policemen after the latter demanded it. We are really surprised at how the ACB function here. No SOP was followed before arresting our men," added the officer.

"Above all, the accused Sethia, who our team arrested after a massive search, was set free by ACB officers. There were more than half dozen media persons present at Sethia's house when he was nabbed by our team. Which policemen will dare to demand and accept money in the presence of the media?" wondered the crime branch officer.

"No FIR has been registered even after 24 hours. The cops are saying they are busy in panchanama. But the ACB officers were in a hurry to address the media. The ACB officers have enough time to address media but not to register an FIR," the officer added.

‘Maha cops wanted a deal'

mid-day spoke to the ACB team which intercepted crime branch team. "The Maharashtra crime branch team had not informed the local police station before arresting Sethia in Udaipur. He was picked up in the morning and they were roaming with him in the vehicle. Sethia was told by the crime branch personnel that they won't arrest him if he coughs up R10 lakh," said Inspector Ratan Singh, Udaipur, ACB.

"Sethia tried to negotiate the deal and agreed to pay R5 lakh. But the crime branch officers were adamant. They told him to pay Rs 5 lakh here and then pay the remaining amount in Mumbai. When Sethia learnt that they were taking him to Maharashtra despite paying them Rs 5 lakh, information was passed onto our Jaipur unit that a team from Maharashtra police was going away with a cash of R5 lakh," Singh told mid-day.
"We recovered R4.97 lakh cash from the car in which crime branch officers were travelling with Sethia. After registering zero FIR, we have forwarded the case to Jaipur for further investigation," Singh said.

Asked why Sethia was set free, Singh said, "Since there was no document with the crime branch to prove that Sethia was an accused, we set him free. He is not a wanted criminal in any of our cases. He and his friend are witnesses in this case," said Singh.

When asked why the SOP was not followed before conducting raid, Singh said, "We have followed all the legal procedures. Since it was important to conduct the raid immediately, so we did not get time to have voice recording to prove that crime branch is demanding money."
Additional SP, ACB, Udaipur, Umesh Ojha said, "The process to register an FIR is underway. The money was kept in a bag along with some clothes and it was in the possession of the crime branch team."

"The crime branch says that Sethia is wanted in a case registered with them but when we checked their case files, his name was not there. Even if Sethia was named by an accused during interrogation, the crime branch should have informed a local police station before detaining him from his house. They should have gone to local court for his (Sethia) transit warrant," Ojha said.

‘We followed SOPs'

Asked if SOPs were followed before intercepting the crime branch personnel, Ojha said, "When we get any credible information, we inform our seniors to seek their permission and always take two independent government witnesses with our team. In a trap case, there have to be some recordings to verify and establish the demand. But in this situation, a man was taken into custody and money demanded from him. He was asked to call his friend or relatives to arrange money then and there. This was the intelligence which we got, so we had to intercept them."

Asked what if the crime branch personnel argue in the court that the cash was falsely planted by ACB officers, Ojha said, "Let them prove it. The moment we got the information, our team set into motion along with two government officers who act as independent witnesses. So there is no question of planting anything."

"Why were they in possession of this much money? Was it given officially for travelling and other expenses by the department? They are free to prove it in court. These crime branch officers have accepted that the cash belongs to them and there is a full memo which is prepared of the action taken of this whole process, and they have signed it," Ojha added.

Rs 4.97 lakh
Amount of cash crime branch personnel were found with

Rs 10lakh
Amount crime branch allegedly asked Sethia for