23 May,2011 06:48 AM IST | | Poornima Swaminathan
Home Minister R R Patil has set up a high-level inquiry panel to find out if ACP Mahabole, who allegedly entered the MiD DAY reporter's lock-up and threatened him, tried to influence the GRP's investigation
Truth finally seems to be prevailing in the case of MiD DAY reporter Tarakant Dwivedi AKA Akela, who was in police custody for five days last week after he was charged under sections of the draconian Official Secrets Act (OSA) for a story he had done last year. Following allegations of ACP Anil Mahabole of the Azad Maidan police "possibly interfering in and influencing" the investigations conducted by the Government Railway Police (GRP), Home Minister RR Patil has ordered a high-level inquiry into the matter.
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In trouble: In 2007, ACP Anil Mahaboleu00a0 was suspended for allegedly
having links with the underworld when a builder accused him of extortion.
MiD DAY reporter Tarakant Dwivedi AKA Akela
He has asked senior officers to investigate why Mahabole, who has no jurisdiction under the GRP, allegedly entered Akela's lock-up to threaten him and whether his actions were the result of "personal vendetta". The inquiry will be headed and supervised by Rajnish Seth, joint commissioner of police (Law and Order), and will also find out who sanctioned the application of the OSA against Akela. "If a personal vendetta is even indicated, we will take strict action against Mahabole. We are awaiting the report. Such behaviour by policemen is uncalled for," said Patil.
Underworld links
Mahabole, who has been advised to proceed on leave, does not have an envious service track record. In 2007, he was suspended for allegedly having links with the underworld when a builder accused him of extortion. The meeting between him and the builder was allegedly arranged by Hasina Parker, the younger sister of India's most wanted gangster Dawood Ibrahim.
The Maharashtra Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), which was probing the case, submitted a confidential report to then Mumbai police commissioner DN Jadhav, which stated that Mahabole was not cooperating with the investigation and asked for a police probe into Mahabole's links with members of the Dawood Ibrahim gang.
The report (copy with MiD DAY) states that the agency had asked Mahabole to submit his cell phones and Mahabole had submitted two, which they suspected he did not use.
In a separate letter to Jadhav, an ACB officer also requested a probe into the roles of Mahabole and an assistant inspector, Rajendra Nikam, in the failed plan of illegally redeveloping a property in Antop Hill under a Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) scheme.
Then, in December last year, Sanjeev Kokil, a senior inspector with the MRA Marg police, accused Mahabole of falsely trying to implicate him in an extortion case. In his complaint letter to the commissioner, Kokil said he had finished the 'underworld rajya' from Musafirkhana and had demolished 500 illegal shops there, which had allegedly rubbed Mahabole the wrong way.
Well-connected
The buzz in police circles is that Mahabole enjoys the support of another assistant commissioner, who is, incidentally, a batchmate of a very senior minister from the Nationalist Congress Party, which is part of the ruling coalition in the state. The ACP in question was also allegedly involved in the Telgi stamp paper scam but managed to escape the scrutiny of the Special Investigation Team. There are reasons to suspect that this ACP could have played a pivotal role in Akela's arrest. Police sources said this could explain why Mahabole has a free run and continues to get lucrative postings despite serious observations made against him by the ACB. What also deserves to be highlighted is that Mahabole has managed to stay posted in the south Mumbai areau00a0-- considered to be a Dawood Ibrahim strongholdu00a0-- for the past 25 years.
The case
Akela was put behind bars by the CST GRP for exposing the poor condition in which hi-tech weapons procured after the 26/11 attack were being kept by the railway security forces. The article, published in Mumbai Mirror ('Leaks in CST armoury put new anti-terror arms under threat', June 28, 2010), where Akela used to work before joining MiD DAY, stated that all the new arms and ammunition were stored in a dank, decrepit room, where water was dripping from the roof and damaging them.
The Other Side
Anil Mahabole did not respond to a text message sent by this newspaper last afternoon.
