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SIT grills Mumbai Police Commissioner

By Arunkumar Bhatt

MUMBAI Nov. 8. The Police Commissioner of Mumbai, Ranjit Singh Sharma, appeared today before the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the multi-crore, multi-State, fake stamp paper scandal.

The SIT, which arrested the Joint Commissioner (Intelligence), Maharashtra Police, Sridhar Wagal, on Friday for being "hand in glove" with the principal accused, Abdul Telgi, grilled Mr. Sharma for an hour.

Like Mr. Wagal, Mr. Sharma was also sent a questionnaire to which he responded but the SIT chief, S.S. Puri, and others thought it necessary to talk with him. Mr. Sharma said he was questioned about the Pune investigation.

Mr. Puri, a nominee of the Mumbai High Court which is hearing a public interest litigation about lapses in investigation and police involvement, submitted his report about Mr. Sharma's role in the investigation as the Police Commissioner of Pune where the scandal surfaced.

According to Shamshuddin Mushrif, Additional Commissioner, Mr. Sharma had not only deliberately deployed officers convenient to Telgi but was also aware of the documents showing the "involvement" of Telgi's wife in the scandal.

But he did not implicate her in the First Information Report.

Police sources said the SIT had also sent questionnaires to the former Director-General of Police, Subhash Malhotra, and had received his reply.

Mr. Wagal is a M.Sc. Physics gold medallist and has won the President's medal for meritorious service while serving in the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB).

The ACB raided his apartment in Mumbai and said it seized five revolvers — one service and four of foreign origin.

The SIT action against top guns has put the Opposition in a "we-told-you-so" position. The Leader of the Opposition, Narayan Rane, said the Deputy Chief Minister, Chhagan Bhujbal, who holds the Home portfolio, had no moral right to continue in office.

Mr. Bhujbal said the arrest of the top police officer indicated that the court-ordered investigation was impartial.

PTI reports from Pune:

Mr. Wagal was today remanded to police custody till November 13 by a local court. He was produced before the Judicial Magistrate, First Class, A.A.A. Shaikh, who remanded him to police custody.

Mr. Wagal is the first IPS officer to be booked under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) and the sixth police officer to be arrested in the scam.

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