Nagpur: The Special Court for the Prevention of Corruption Act, presided over by Judge Nitin Jadhav, has acquitted Assistant Police Inspector Damodar Rajurkar and Constable Sheetal Prasad Mishra of graft charges under Section 7 of the PC Act.
The case stemmed from a complaint alleging that the two officers, then posted with the Social Security Department, had demanded ₹35,000 from a spa owner to avoid implicating her in a criminal case and to allow her business to operate smoothly. Acting on the complaint, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) organized a verification process using a digital voice recorder and panch witnesses. However, the alleged trap could not be executed fully after the accused officers became suspicious and attempted to have the complainant searched by a lady constable. The complainant reportedly concealed the recorder in a panch witness’s purse, and the operation collapsed.
Gold Rate
12 Sept 2025
During the trial, the complainant admitted in cross-examination that it was another officer, Inspector Besarkar, who had demanded the money, not the accused. The panch witness also conceded that she was outside the room during the alleged conversation and had not directly heard the demand. The Investigating Officer failed to establish the authenticity of the electronic evidence presented.
Defense counsel Advocate Prakash Naidu, along with Advocates Homesh Chauhan, Mitesh Bais, Surabhi Naidu (Godbole), and Dhruv Sharma, argued that the recordings could not be relied upon as they did not meet the requirements of the Evidence Act, and that the complainant had reasons to falsely implicate the accused, given her past arrests under the Prevention of Immoral Traffic Act.
Considering the contradictions in witness testimonies and lack of credible evidence, the court acquitted both accused officers.
