The Mumbai court today has acquitted a private detective and his wife in a 2017 case registered against them for allegedly trying to extort money from retired IAS officer Radheshyam Mopalwar.
Apart from the duo, Satish Mangle and his wife Shraddha, Judge AM Patil of the special court under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) also acquitted Atul Tambe who was booked for allegedly assisting the couple.
Therefore, the court stated that there is ample doubt in the prosecution case and the benefit of it has to be given to the accused.
According to police, the couple allegedly threatened to defame Mopalwar using recordings of his phone calls and demanded ₹7 crore from him to keep the audio clips out of public knowledge and for retracting their allegations of corruption against the bureaucrat.
The anti-extortion cell of Thane police arrested the couple in 2017 while allegedly accepting ₹1 crore as part payment of the extortion amount.
Mopalwar was the managing director of Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) at the time.
Mangle, a private detective, came in contact with Mopalwar when the latter sought his help in the connection with his divorce. Subsequently, Mangle allegedly got access to phone call recordings of the IAS officer.
Therefore, it was alleged that Mangle tried to extort money from Mopalwar and shared a few audio clips with news channels which got aired later. In the alleged clips, Mopalwar was purportedly heard fixing a deal for a plot here.
Then, the IAS officer was sent on leave over allegations of bribery.
Now retired, Mopalwar has been made the director-general of War Room (Infrastructure Projects) by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
