According to the ACB’s Mumbai unit, accused Shankar Pujari, who had allegedly amassed Rs 16.9 lakh disproportionately to his known service of income till 2015, is posted in the central region control room. (Representative Image) The Maharashtra Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) recently registered an FIR against an inspector of Mumbai Police who was acquitted by a court in 2018 in a bribery case.
According to the ACB’s Mumbai unit, accused Shankar Pujari, who had allegedly amassed Rs 16.9 lakh disproportionately to his known service of income till 2015, is posted in the central region control room.
He was posted at the Mulund police station in 2015 when the ACB had received a complaint against him for demanding a bribe.
The complaint was made on November 23, 2015, by a club owner in Mulund against Pujari for allegedly demanding a bribe to allow his club to operate. Based on the complaint, a day later, the ACB apprehended Pujari in the bribery case after he accepted Rs 5,000.
During a house search back then, the sum of Rs 16.9 lakh was seized from his house. The ACB then sent a proposal to the home department to initiate an open inquiry against Pujari.
Subsequently, the ACB initiated the inquiry and concluded that the income was disproportionate to his salary earned between 2000 and 2015. Pujari was then given time to explain how he had got that sum, which is 28.57 per cent more than his known sources of income.
After he failed to give any satisfactory reply, Pujari was booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. The officer was suspended back then, but eventually acquitted in the bribery case. It’s not clear to the ACB when he was reinstated in the service.
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