Joint Commissioner of Police (Intelligence) Sridhar Vagal, who was arrested for his alleged complicity in multi-billion rupee fake stamp paper case, was on Saturday remanded to police custody till November 13 by a Pune court.
Vagal, who was Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) in Mumbai from March 2002 to March 2003, was arrested in Mumbai on Friday and brought to Pune later the same night. He was produced before Judicial Magistrate, First Class, A A A Shaikh who remanded him in police custody.
Vagal, who holds the rank of inspector general of police, is the first Indian Police Service officer to be booked under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act and the sixth police officer to be arrested in the scam.
Vagal was arrested for his alleged role in "shielding" the prime accused Abdul Karim Telgi and granting him special favours. He was summoned to the Special Investigating Team office in Worli, south Mumbai, on Friday, interrogated for two hours, and later arrested.
Other policemen arrested in the scam include Assistant Commissioner of Police Gokul Patil; Inspector Vashist Andhale and Sub-Inspector Pratap Kakade of the Nalasopara police station (Thane rural), located north of Mumbai; Crime Branch Police Inspector Dilip Kamath; and Crime Branch Senior Police Inspector Datta Dal.
Vagal's arrest comes after the Bombay High Court appointed former Director-General of Police S S Puri, who had retired, to head the SIT that was set up to probe the fake stamp papers racket.
