API held on charge of accepting Rs 1L in bribe

Pune: The state anti-corruption bureau (ACB) on Wednesday arrested an assistant police inspector (API) from the Airport police station and his accomplice, a private person, on the charge of demanding and accepting Rs1lakh from a man to help his father secure bail in a cheating case.

The trap was activated soon after the private person accepted the alleged bribe on behalf of the API.

The ACB arrested API Rahul Ashok Patil (33) and his accomplice Santosh Bhausaheb Khandve (45) of Lohegaon.

The 22-year-old complainant from Vimannagar approached the ACB with a grievance regarding bribery demand following which superintendent of police (ACB) Rajesh Bansode, deputy superintendent Shrihari Patil and inspector Sunil Kshirsagar laid a trap at Lohegaon. A formal FIR was registered with the Airport Police Station.

Patil said, “The victim’s father, a businessman, has been arrested by the Airport police in a cheating case. The victim was trying to obtain a bail for his father. In order to ‘help’ the victim in obtaining bail, the API demanded a bribe of Rs5 lakh from the victim.

“However, the victim expressed his inability to pay Rs5 lakh and the API settled for Rs3lakh. On Wednesday afternoon, Khandve took a bribe of Rs1lakh as first instalment at the behest of the assistant police inspector when we nabbed them.”