A Vasco-based businessman today accused Inspector General of Police, Sunil Garg, of accepting bribe of Rs 5.5 lakh in installments last year for registering an FIR in a cheating case, a charge denied by the officer.
The businessman, Munnalal Halwai, also filed a formal complaint against the IGP with Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar, Anti-Corruption Bureau, besides moving a separate petition before a special court against Garg alleging that he accepted bribe totalling Rs 5.5 lakh from him in instalments.
Speaking to reporters here, Halwai played out an audio clip which purportedly contained the recording of a conversation between Garg and himself about the officer accepting the money.
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When contacted, the police officer refused the allegation, though he accepted he had met the businessman.
"I did meet Halwai but I have not accepted any bribe and I have not done anything wrong," the IGP told reporters minutes after Halwai addressed a press conference here.
Explaining the sequence of events, Halwai claimed he had filed a police complaint against another businessman from Ponda town after the latter "cheated" him of Rs 1.15 crore after promising to sell him a petrol pump last year.
"I had filed a formal complaint against the Ponda-based businessman with local police station, but they refused to register FIR," Halwai said.
He said he later met Garg who, according to him, sought 10 per cent of Rs 1.15 crore as bribe for registering FIR.
"However, after bargaining, Garg agreed to get the FIR registered at Ponda police station for Rs 5.50 lakh," Halwai claimed.
To a query on why he didn't disclose the matter earlier, Halwai merely said he was waiting for registration of FIR in the cheating case.
The DGP and the Chief Minister were not available for comments.
Meanwhile, the Aam Aadmi Party's Goa unit today
demanded a probe by an independent agency into the allegations against the IGP.
"This looks like prima facie it is a case of corruption. The allegations levelled against IGP are of serious nature. The investigation needs to be done by an independent agency," AAP Goa spokesman Rupesh Shinkre said.
"We don't trust any agency which is controlled by Goa government to conduct fair investigation in the case. Either a court-monitored investigation or probe by Special Investigation Team (SIT) should be conducted in the matter," Shinkre said.
Criticising the CM, he said, "Parsekar has reinstated his own brother-in-law (Dilip Malavankar) who was arrested while accepting bribe. What can be expected from such a chief minister."
He said Goa police will not be able to conduct an impartial inquiry into the allegations as Garg is a high-ranking officer in the (police) department.
