Pune, July 05: A special court today extended till July 10 the police custody of suspended Assistant Police Inspector Dilip Pandurang Kamath, arrested in the multi-crore fake stamp paper racket. Kamath, arrested under Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act on June 13, was produced amidst tight security before judicial magistrate first class M N Bondre.
Kamath, formerly posted in Crime Branch of Mumbai Police, is facing the charge of developing nexus with the prime accused Abdul Karim Telgi in the fake stamp racket. Seeking extension of his custody for seven days, special public prosecutor Raja Thakre submitted that investigations were still on and that the accused had to be confronted with co-accused.
The recent arrest of two accused -- Samajwadi Janata party MLA Anil Gote from Dhule and Telgi's brother from Bangalore-- had consumed most of the time in investigations, the prosecutor said and added that police wanted to further interrogate Kamath. The accused was a police officer and was therefore not cooperating in investigations. Hence his custodial interrogation was necessary, the prosecutor said.
Opposing the police remand, Kamath's counsel pleaded that the custody of his client was not necessary as interrogation in this case was done by a police officer above the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Police and that the police had already exhausted sufficient time to grill him.
Kamat and two constables had been suspended early this year after they were allegedly found helping the prime accused Telgi during interrogations. Bureau Report