Maharashtra Police Scam: How a "Cybercrime Cop" Blackmailed a Doctor
Mumbai, 2 9 April, 2015: Can the Police Cybercrime Cell target you for filing an online complaint on the Anti Corruption Bureau? Can Anti Curruption Bureau (ACB) pass on information about your online complaint to the Cybercrime Cell? Isn't ACB supposed to treat such complaints as confidential and investigate the subject of the complaint, rather than turning the spotlight on the complainant himself? On 14 Jan, 2015, Dr Mahesh A Deshmukh, MD, Fellow Rheumatology, based in Nanded, Maharashtra, received a call from Mr. Harshal Chavan, Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI), Office of the Superintendent of Police, asking him to come along with his wife to the SP's office the next morning, regarding a complaint of cybercrime against him. What followed was a harrowing three-week experience of repeatedly being called, "interrogated" and blackmailed for Rs 35,000 by the ASI with the connivance of a conman named Praveen Kumar Khandewal. Throughout this three-week nightmare, there was...