Constable Sunil Toke
Constable Sunil Toke’s fight against rampant corruption in his own department has received a severe blow with the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) of Mumbai submitting a report to the Bombay High Court saying that the allegations leveled by him were false.
Government pleader Jayesh Yagnik, who appeared for the ACB, informed a bench of Justice Ranjit More and Revati Mohite Dere that the photos and videos showing cops taking bribe, downloaded by Toke from YouTube, were that of the Gujarat and Hyderabad police.
After Toke filed a PIL in the court in January, alleging corruption in the traffic department, the court gave six weeks time to ACB and asked its additional director to submit a detailed report of the allegations made by him. The constable had also sought an FIR and departmental inquiry in the matter.
Speaking before the bench, Yagnik said, “We have gone through the CDs submitted by Toke and have also recorded the statements of 29 people, including policemen. The CDs were inaudible and the photos and videos submitted by him were that of Hyderabad and Gujarat police. The allegations are not sustainable.”
However, Toke’s counsel Pradeep Havnur claimed before the bench that ACB was not interested in conducting the inquiry.
The bench has kept the matter for hearing on March 29 and has asked Havnur to go through the CDs and inform the bench if he found anything substantial.
Shocking allegations
Toke, who had joined the Force in 1985, is currently posted with the Local Arms unit in Worli.
While he was serving in the Goregaon and Wadala units of the traffic department, he was shocked to witness rampant corruption.
He had alleged in the petition that during a drive against drunk driving, usually the concerned team is given a target of five to 10 cases.
However, the team would catch around 40-50 people and prosecute only a few.
Some of them were let off after taking a bribe of Rs 10,000-50,000.
He had also mentioned that illegal taxis and autos pay around Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000 to cops to continue their services.
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