Published On : Sat, Aug 18th, 2018

Nagpur court grants bail to constable in Hawala case

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NAGPUR: Hearing the Rs 5 Crore Hawala case, the Nagpur Sessions Court on Saturday granted bail to police constable (writer) Vilas Wadekar against the security of Rs 5 Lakh. The court however rejected bail applications of police constable (driver) Sachin Bajbhuje and other informers.

The accused have been lodged in the Nagpur Central Jail since last four months. Advocates R P Joshi and Sameer Sonawane appeared in the court on behalf of accused constable Vilas Wadekar.

API Sunil Sonawane of Nandanvan police station is also an accused in the case. His advocate Sameer Sonawane informed that the API had not filed any bail application in the Session Court so far.

As per sources, Assistant Police Inspector of Nandanvan police station Sunil Sonawane had usurped Rs 2.50 crores of Hawala seizure. Sonawane is accused of allowing the accused namely Sachin Padgilwar, Pintu Wasnik and Gajanan Munmune to flee the spot. This was established in the investigation done by the Crime Branch. Therefore, API Sonawane, constable Sachin Bhajbuje, constable Wadekar and one more accused were arrested in the case.

It may be recalled that one early Sunday morning in April 2018, police had intercepted a Duster vehicle near Prajapati Square on Pardi Road and seized crores of rupees of Hawala from the car. The money belonged to Khajan Thakkar, the owner of Maple Jewellers in Raipur. The money was being transferred to Hawala businessman Prashant Kesani in Nagpur. This was informed by vehicle driver Rajesh Mendhe, a resident of Minimata Nagar in Kalamna, and Gulabchand Jain, a resident of Tulsi Nagar in Shanti Nagar.

That morning, police has summoned Prashant Kesani but instead one Manish Khandelwal reached the police station. Manish had provided the keys of the locker in the Duster car. On opening the lockers, police had seized cash of crores of rupees. API Sonawane and his associates had illegally parted crores of rupees among themselves. This was suspected by Manish Khandelwal and ACP Nilesh Bharne had instituted an enquiry in the matter. The investigation report had found API Sonawane guilty of the crime.

Meanwhile police had arrested Sachin Padgilwar, Pintu Wasnik and Gajanan Munmune from Mahabaleshwar. Deputy CP of Crime Branch Sambhaji Kadam had interrogated police officials and employees in the case and found the charges to be true.