THANE: Investigators claimed they recently recovered nearly 500 RTI applications, presumably filed with an "ulterior motive", from the apartment of private detective Satish Mangle and his actor wife Shraddha, who tried to pry into lives of several Bollywood personalities.
A senior officer said they had found mounds of papers and government documents from the apartment during a detailed inspection. Around 100 applications seeking specific information were responded to by government offices, the officer said.
"Most applications were filed by Shraddha and Satish's father to government offices. It is suspected that Satish was using the RTI to blackmail others too," the officer said.
Around a month back, the couple was arrested by Thane police's anti-extortion cell while allegedly accepting Rs 1 crore from IAS officer Radheshyam Mopalwar in exchange for "incriminating" audio tapes of him purportedly striking a land deal in Borivli and withdrawing a corruption complaint against him. The duo, along with others, had allegedly threatened to defame Mopalwar by using his recorded calls and audio recordings, which they had, and demanded Rs 7 crore for retracting allegations of corruption against him and for returning CDs of the recordings, police said.
Police on Thursday questioned deputy superintendent of police from Amravati (rural) Pravin Patil, whose named cropped up in the case and in several recorded conversations between Satish and Patil, which were saved on Satish's laptop, the officer said. "We questioned Patil for an hour but he denied any wrongdoing. He said he had only introduced Satish to Mopalwar a few years back when he was posted in Mumbai," the officer said.
The officer added that they were likely to summon him again as his answers were unsatisfactory.
A senior officer said they had found mounds of papers and government documents from the apartment during a detailed inspection. Around 100 applications seeking specific information were responded to by government offices, the officer said.
"Most applications were filed by Shraddha and Satish's father to government offices. It is suspected that Satish was using the RTI to blackmail others too," the officer said.
Around a month back, the couple was arrested by Thane police's anti-extortion cell while allegedly accepting Rs 1 crore from IAS officer Radheshyam Mopalwar in exchange for "incriminating" audio tapes of him purportedly striking a land deal in Borivli and withdrawing a corruption complaint against him. The duo, along with others, had allegedly threatened to defame Mopalwar by using his recorded calls and audio recordings, which they had, and demanded Rs 7 crore for retracting allegations of corruption against him and for returning CDs of the recordings, police said.
Police on Thursday questioned deputy superintendent of police from Amravati (rural) Pravin Patil, whose named cropped up in the case and in several recorded conversations between Satish and Patil, which were saved on Satish's laptop, the officer said. "We questioned Patil for an hour but he denied any wrongdoing. He said he had only introduced Satish to Mopalwar a few years back when he was posted in Mumbai," the officer said.
The officer added that they were likely to summon him again as his answers were unsatisfactory.
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