MUMBAI: IPS officer Saurabh Tripathi has moved the sessions court seeking pre-arrest bail in connection with an extortion case registered against him by the Mumbai police's crime branch based on a complaint lodged by angadiyas.
The police had recently shown him as a wanted accused in the case after his name surfaced during the investigation.
Deputy commissioner of police Tripathi, through his lawyer Aniket Nikkam, filed the pre-arrest bail plea earlier this week.
The matter will come up for hearing on March 24.
"The IPS officer has been falsely implicated in the case. His name was not there in the FIR," Nikkam said.
There is no reason for Tripathi to extort money from angadiyas.
This was an attempt to malign his image, he claimed.
An inspector, an assistant inspector and a sub-inspector attached to LT Marg police station in south Mumbai have been arrested in the case so far.
The trio is currently in judicial custody.
As per the complaint lodged by angadiyas, the accused officials had allegedly extorted money from them on several occasions in December by threatening to tip off the Income Tax department about their cash movements and business activities.
The angadiyas' complaint was probed by Additional Commissioner of Police (South Region) Dilip Sawant on the directions of then commissioner Hemant Nagrale.