PANAJI: Crime Branch police probing the Rs 10 lakh Calangute dacoity case is trying to ascertain whether the main accused Deepak Gadekar had paid three police personnel the protection money.
A senior police officer said that Gadekar during his interrogation claimed that he paid over Rs 1 lakh to a police inspector, Rs 30,000 to a police sub-inspector and Rs 20,000 to a police constable.
Sources informed that the accused police sub-inspector and police constable have admitted that Gadekar had given them money and claimed that the money was actually borrowed from them by Gadekar.
However, the police will further probe into this aspect.
“We are looking into that aspect as it also could be a ploy by the accused to divert the investigation. However, we have not given clean chit to anyone as yet. We are in process to ascertain the facts,” said the officer.
The self proclaimed activist Deepak Gadekar along with two police personnel, Hawaldar Keshav Naik and police constable Mahendra Mandrekar have been arrested by the Calangute police in the case.
The case has been subsequently transferred to the Crime Branch which has arrested three more accused Atmaram Malvankar, Pritesh Agarwadekar and Gautam Korgaonkar, associates of the main accused Gadekar.
It may be recalled that the accused had allegedly robbed new currency notes from a businessman who had come to exchange the currency against the demonetised currency notes for a certain percentage as commission. The incident had occurred on December 1, however, a complaint was filed in the next week by a businessman from Mangalore.