The accused arrested in IPS and IAS posting scam busted in May had approached at least three senior IPS officers in March offering to get them transferred to places of their choice, claims charge sheet filed by Mumbai crime branch.

The posting racket was busted by Mumbai crime branch on the complaint of an IPS officer on May 31. The racket was headed by Ravindra Yadav, 51, a resident of Delhi, with the help of others including Vidyasagar Hirmukhe, 47, a deputy secretary and general manager of Mahananda Dairy.

Apart from the two, the police has charge sheeted — Kishor Mali, 38, Vishal Ombale, 40, Kamlesh Kanade, 29, Chandrakant Rakhunde, 39, and Bandenjwaj Maner, 29, in the case.

The charge sheet claims the accused operated as a gang and would approach people who needed help from any government department. This help included getting transfers, files cleared, black money cleared, license for sugar factory or a job in merchant navy. The recent was the posting scam. The accused would introduce their ‘prospective clients’ to Yadav who would take it from there.

As per the charge sheet, at least three senior IPS officers — Namdev Chavan, deputy commissioner of police, Solapur, Ashok Dudhe, deputy commissioner of police (Traffic) and Vitthal Jadhav, Spl IG(Prisons), Pune — and few of the police officials attached with Maharashtra police were approached by the accused.

Three IPS officers admit

The charge sheet has all three IPS officers admitting that the accused had approached them for good posts in the state. Apart from the three IPS officers, the accused had also approached police inspectors and sub inspectors for posting. Harshvardhan Gund, police inspector (prohibition), approached by Mali and Ombale with an offer of a good posting. The statement reads that the two asked him for Rs25 lakh for a good posting in the city.

Gund said, he told that out of Rs25 lakh, they have to pay Rs5 lakh to their counterpart Yadav in Delhi as advance. Gund realised something strange. He declined the offer and told them that he doesn’t want to do anything against the law, Gund said in his statement in Marathi.

They had also approached Umesh Sapkal, assistant police inspector, attached with Anti-Narcotics Cell of Mumbai police. The accused had promised to help him get a house allotted at the official quarters in Dadar or Colaba.

Later Kanade approached him for transfer at a good place. In his statement, Sapkal said, “I told Kanade that I had already applied for transfer. However, if you can do something at your level do it.” Later Sapkal said Kanade asked him for money, to which he denied.

Just before the arrest on May 31, Hirmukhe had promised Deepak Jadhav, assistant police inspector, posted in Godhia. Jadhav claimed that he knew him while he was posted in Matralaya with one of the ministers where Hirmukhe was personal secretary to minister. Hirmukhe had offered him a post out of the Naxalite area. However, before the deal could work, he was arrested by the Mumbai crime branch.