Three Gujarat Cops Accused Of Trying To Extort Money After Freezing Bank Accounts For `Probe’

A case of extortion was registered in Gujarat’s Junagadh district on Friday against two police inspectors and an assistant sub-inspector (ASI) for allegedly trying to extort Rs 25 lakh from a Kerala resident for unfreezing his bank account.

The First Information Report was registered after an internal probe revealed that the accused trio had frozen some 335 bank accounts on the pretext of investigation and tried to extort money from one of the account holders when he approached them, said a police official here.

Based on a complaint filed by inspector S N Gohil from the office of Inspector General (IG) of Junagadh Range Nilesh Jajadia, Junagadh ‘B’ Division police registered the FIR against town police inspector Taral Bhatt, inspector with the cyber crime cell of Junagadh Special Operations Group (SOG) A M Gohil, and ASI Dipak Jani.

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Indian Penal Code sections 167 (public servant framing an incorrect document with intent to cause injury), 465 (forgery), 385 (putting a person in fear for extortion), 120b (criminal conspiracy) besides relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act were invoked in the FIR, said inspector S N Gohil, the complainant.

“Both A M Gohil and Jani have already been suspended from service. No arrests have been made yet,” he said.

As per the FIR, Kartik Bhandari, a resident of Kerala, learned in December 2023 that his bank account had been frozen by the bank. Bank officials told him that it was done on the orders of the Cyber Crime Cell of Junagadh police.

When Bhandari contacted police officials in Junagadh, they sought some documents and bank statements. When the issue was still not resolved, he traveled to Junagadh on January 16 and contacted Jani and A M Gohil at the SOG office.

Jani allegedly told Bhandari that the account was frozen as there were “secret inputs received from the Enforcement Directorate (ED)” about suspicious transactions worth crores of rupees, and demanded a bribe of Rs 25 lakh.

When Bhandari said he could arrange only Rs 3 to 4 lakh, Jani allegedly said other account holders had paid Rs 20 lakh each to unfreeze their accounts, and his senior officers would not settle for Rs 3-4 lakh.

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Inspector A M Gohil then allegedly threatened to forward the case to the ED, the FIR said.

As advised by his lawyer, Bhandari contacted the Range IG and applied to unfreeze his account. IG Jajadia asked inspector S N Gohil to conduct an inquiry.

The probe revealed that inspector Taral Bhatt had prepared a list of several bank accounts and allegedly asked A M Gohil to have them frozen on the pretext of suspicious transactions.

As directed by Bhatt, A M Gohil, and Jani allegedly issued letters to various banks between August and November last year and asked them to freeze 335 bank accounts, the FIR said.
Further probe is underway, inspector S N Gohil said.

Source: PTI