The petitioner has claimed that he was arrested by the police and threatened with third-degree torture after he refused to pay money to the three officers in an alleged cheating case. A chargesheet was subsequently filed in April against the petitioner, who is currently out on bail.

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He later approached the Bombay HC and sought direction that no coercive action be taken against him pending hearing. (File)
A writ petition has been moved before the Bombay High Court on Wednesday seeking an FIR be registered against three Mumbai Police crime branch officers, one of whom was transferred to a “side posting”, in connection with a bribery case.
The petitioner has claimed that he was arrested by the police and threatened with third-degree torture after he refused to pay money to the three officers in an alleged cheating case. A chargesheet was subsequently filed in April against the petitioner, who is currently out on bail.

Advocate K H Giri, representing the petitioner, told The Indian Express, “We have moved a writ petition before the Bombay High Court on Wednesday seeking an FIR be registered against the three officers who demanded bribe from my client. Since we have not been informed of any FIR being registered against the officers, we have decided to approach the court.”
Joint Commissioner of Police (crime) Santosh Rastogi, however, said that an enquiry in the matter was being conducted “expeditiously” under Additional Commissioner of Police (crime) Sandeep Karnik.

According to police sources, Inspector Sunil Mane, one of the three officers accused of seeking bribe, had been transferred to Modus Operandi Bureau from Unit X of the crime branch. Senior officers, however, had maintained that the transfer was an “administrative decision” and had nothing to do with the bribery allegations against Mane. Earlier, Mane had denied the charges and said police have provided evidence against the petitioner in a cheating case in the chargesheet filed against him.
In the writ petition, the petitioner had claimed that on October 27 last year, some police informers had approached him claiming that a crime branch officer had got evidence of the petitioner’s involvement in an alleged cheating case. The petitioner claimed that he paid Rs 18.50 lakh to the police to avoid harassment.

He claimed that in the second week of January, the police informers had again approached him stating that Senior Inspector Sunil Mane, then posted at crime branch Unit X, had also got further evidence against him in the alleged cheating case. The petitioner claimed that when he refused to pay further money to the police, he was picked up from his office on February 25 and taken to crime branch unit X. He claimed that another crime branch officer had told him that he would be let off from the case if he paid Rs 1 crore. The amount was later lowered to Rs 40 lakh by Mane, the petitioner has alleged in the writ plea.
The petitioner also claimed that he was threatened with third-degree torture and his wife told to sell off her jewellery to a Lokhandwala-based jeweller to pay the money.
A day after a chargesheet was filed against him, the petitioner was released on bail on April 22, following which he wrote to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, state Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, Mumbai Police Commissioner and Joint Commissioner of Police (crime) in the matter.
He later approached the Bombay HC and sought direction that no coercive action be taken against him pending hearing.