In a first for Maharashtra, an IPS officer has been convicted on bribery charges levelled by a subordinate officer. DIG A K Jain was on Wednesday sentenced to five years’ rigorous imprisonment for taking a Rs 3-lakh bribe.
A special anti-corruption court, which also sentenced Jain’s chartered accountant Prassanna Lodha, ordered the senior police officer to pay a fine of Rs 1.5 lakh.
It was Inspector Sanjeev Kokil who approached the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) against Jain after the latter demanded Rs 5 lakh for helping him escape disciplinary action.
In 2000, then Mumbai Police Commissioner M N Singh had initiated a crackdown on bars and restaurants that remained opened beyond the permissible hours. On the night of May 21, police raided a bar that fell under the limits of the Byculla police station, where Inspector Kokil was posted. The Police Commissioner ordered a departmental probe against the officers of the Byculla station, including Kokil.
After the probe report was forwarded to Jain, then an Additional Commissioner in Mumbai, he issued a show-cause notice to Kokil.