A police inspector in Pune was arrested, along with her accomplice, for accepting a bribe of Rs28 lakh on Saturday afternoon — just two days after she received a promotion. The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) team, led by deputy superintendents of police Nita Misal and Satish Walke, trapped the inspector, Vaishali Totewar (49), and her accomplice, Sambhaji Chavan (47), from Sadashiv Peth, in front of a five-star hotel on Mangaldas Road while they were accepting the bribe from a landowner. The bribe was demanded to provide a favourable report in his complaint application.
Arrest and Background
A complaint was registered against the duo at the Koregaon Park police station. Superintendent of police (SP), ACB Pune, Shirish Sardeshpande, confirmed, "Totewar and Chavan were arrested." The arrested police inspector was with the Pune city police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW). She was promoted on Thursday evening as an inspector and transferred to the Government Railway Police, Mumbai. The city police relieved her on Friday for the new assignment.
Details of the Bribe
SP Sardeshpande told TOI, "The bag in which the cash was given to inspector Totewar and her accomplice contained original currency notes valued at Rs1.5 lakh. The rest were ‘child's play notes', identical to original currency notes." He explained that the landowner had submitted a complaint application to the Pune city police, stating that he had borrowed money from a lender and had repaid it. Yet, the lender was allegedly demanding more money and was not releasing the mortgaged land documents. The complaint application was given to Totewar for investigation.
Police inspector Totewar demanded a bribe of Rs30 lakh from the landowner in December last year and promised to give a report in his favour. She also pledged to hand over the land documents to him. She took Rs2 lakh from the landowner at that time. Sardeshpande said, "Totewar kept on demanding the remaining Rs28 lakh from the landowner. We verified the demand, and trapped Totewar and Chavan on Saturday afternoon."
Pressure and Allegations
The landowner told the ACB that Totewar mounted pressure on him, stating that the money lender would sell the land against which he had taken the loan and that he needed to act fast. The landowner also claimed that she told him to pay Rs1 crore to the money lender to settle the issue. He allegedly paid that sum to the latter through demand drafts. Sardeshpande added, "The money lender later submitted a complaint application to the police stating that the landowner had not returned the money to him. This application was also handed over to Totewar for investigation."
