The Special Investigation Team on Thursday night arrested retired assistant commissioner of police Mohammed Chand Mulani in Pune in connection with the fake stamps and stamp paper scam.
Mulani, who retired in August, is being held under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act on the charge of taking a Rs 15 lakh bribe from prime accused Abdul Karim Telgi for dropping names of the latter's relatives from a charge sheet after having demanded Rs 2 crore, SIT sources said.
He is the eighth police officer to be arrested under MCOCA.
Mulani was posted as ACP when the Pune police exposed the fake stamps and stamp paper racket. He was immediate supervisory officer of Inspector Prakash Deshmukh of the Bund Garden police station who was investigating the scam, SIT sources said. Deshmukh has been suspended from service.
Mulani will be produced before the designated special court in Pune on Friday. SIT sources said he has been charged under various provisions of the MCOCA, including section 24 which provides for punishment for public servants who connive with organised crime syndicate.
His arrest comes close on the heels of the SIT taking into custody former Mumbai police commissioner R S Sharma in connection with the scam.
According to the SIT, the Karnataka government had informed the then additional chief home secretary Ashoke Basak about the interception of telephonic talks between Telgi and Mulani. These conversations indicated that Telgi had paid a bribe to Mulani to drop names of some persons from a charge sheet.
Basak in turn informed Pune police commissioner R S Sharma but the latter reportedly ignored the information and instead continued to allow Mulani to be part of the investigating team.
Mulani is also charged with delaying application of MCOCA in the fake stamps case and investigations to favour some of the accused.