Graft allegations against Rajkot police commissioner to be probed

RAJKOT: Based on graft allegations levelled against Rajkot police commissioner (CP) Manoj Agarwal by BJP MLA from Rajkot south constituency Govind Patel, the joint commissioner of police (JCP), Rajkot, Khursheed Ahmed on Saturday ordered a preliminary inquiry into the allegations.
He has entrusted a crime branch assistant commissioner of police (ACP) to probe into the averments.
“We would be inquiring into the allegations made in the letter by MLA Govindbhai Patel. ACP crime (D V Basiya) will conduct the inquiry and will submit a report as soon as possible. If anything substantial comes out in the inquiry, appropriate action will be taken,” Ahmed told TOI. He further added, “It is a basic inquiry to find out the facts of the case and allegations made. What happened and how the allegations came out of it. He would find out if the police acted as per the legal norms or not.”
A letter written by Patel on February 2, 2022, addressing the junior home minister Harsh Sanghvi, had alleged that “Rajkot police commissioner is taking Hawala like goons for recovered money” without, however, taking any names. "Rajkot city police commissioner has demanded 15% commission of the recovered money from victims of financial fraud," said the letter which took the Saurashtra capital by storm on Saturday.
Patel’s letter to the state home minister further stated that “there are many such incidents, of which one such is of a Rajkot-based businessman Mahesh Sakhiya who had given you a written complaint”.
Patel alleged that the crime branch did not file an FIR of cheating and instead demanded 15% of the Rs 7 crore recovered amount. “For the recovery of Rs 7 crore, the commissioner demanded Rs 75 lakh through his police inspector and was putting pressure (on Sakhiya) to pay the remaining Rs 30 lakh”, the letter stated.