Mumbai: A former Senior Police Inspector with the Mumbai Police was on Thursday convicted for accepting a bribe and sentenced to one year rigorous imprisonment by a special court.
Jaywant Mane, who served at Dindoshi police station, was arrested by the Maharashtra Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) for allegedly accepting Rs. 50,000 from a Mumbai-based businessman on May 5, 2014.
“The Social Service Branch had conducted a raid in a private club in Dindoshi a day before the trap was laid, and busted a gambling racket. The complainant in the case was present at the spot as he was looking for one of his employees, a gambling addict, who had not come to work for three days. Mane subsequently threatened to implicate him in the case unless he paid Rs. 1.50 lakh,” an ACB officer said.
The complainant then approached the ACB and acting on the agency's instructions, he contacted Mr. Mane and expressed willingness to pay the bribe. A meeting was fixed and in a trap laid by the agency, Mr. Mane was caught while accepting Rs. 50,000 from the complainant at the Dindoshi police station. Mane was then arrested and charged under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The case went to trial earlier this year and on Thursday, a special court convicted Mr. Mane under the Prevention of Corruption Act and sentenced him to one year of rigorous imprisonment for each offence. However, both the sentences will be served simultaneously, and he will only spend a year in prison, officials said.
The ACB had also found Rs. 4.92 lakh in cash in Mane's office after his arrest.
“We had at the time initiated a separate inquiry to check if there were enough grounds to register a disproportionate assets case against Mane. However, he was able to prove that he had taken the money as a loan for his son's education, and also produced details of the cheque given to him by a friend,” he said.
