The recent arrest of an assistant police inspector (API) on a charge of taking a bribe of Rs5,000 from a garage owner in Goregaon, has sparked off a debate on whether his superior should be penalised too.
API Bhaginath Adao of Goregaon police station was caught by the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) while taking the money, over the licence for two garages operating from an SRA building.
Two former police commissioners, MN Singh and Satyapal Singh, had argued for strict action against policemen caught taking bribes and they also implemented the rule requiring action against the superiors of such offenders. The idea is to put pressure on the seniors to keep a check on their subordinates.
Like the case of Dhananjay Bagayatkar, senior police inspector, who was suspended along with 36 personnel of Nehru Nagar police station after they were caught accepting bribes in a sting operation in April last year. The personnel had taken money to allow construction work in the Kurla area.
In the Goregaon case last week, API Adao asked the garage owner to produce the licence for the garages. When he found that the licence was in the name of another person, he asked him to call the man. But the man was not available and Adao allegedly demanded Rs5,000.
Now the finger of responsibility is being pointed at Adao's immediate superior Arun Jadhav, senior police inspector. Jadhav, however, says he was on leave at the time of the incident and that the police station was headed by another officer at the time.
"I was on leave when my officer was caught taking a bribe and it was done in his individual capacity. None of us were aware," said Jadhav.
Pravin Dixit, director-general, ACB, said, "The investigations in the case are on. As of now we have not found any link of any other officials or the senior police inspector. A call on suspension would depend on the seriousness of the case."
Asked whether the senior PI should be placed under suspension, Brijesh Singh, additional commissioner of police, said there was no rule that if a cop was arrested for taking a bribe, the head of the police station should be held responsible, or suspended, unless some link was proved.
Cop-turned-activist YP Singh said that at the most the senior inspector could be given a warning. "Unless his involvement is proved by the investigating agency he cannot be suspended, especially if the bribe was taken in an individual capacity," said Singh.
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