Cops visit ex-IAS officer’s Pune home over arrest of woman in ‘extortion’ case

Mumbai, Apr 3 (PTI) Police in Maharashtra’s Satara district on Thursday visited the residence of former IAS officer Prabhakar Deshmukh in Pune in connection with the arrest of a woman in an alleged Rs 1 crore extortion bid, an official said.
    A team from the Dahiwadi police station went to the Koregaon Park home of Deshmukh and spent three hours there, but he was not available, the official said.
    The Satara police recently arrested a woman, who had made allegations against cabinet minister Jaykumar Gore, while allegedly accepting an extortion money of Rs 1 crore. According to police, Deshmukh was allegedly in touch with the arrested woman.
    Since the cops could not meet Deshmukh, they enquired about the former bureaucrat with his house helps, an electrician and the guard of the building where the ex-IPS officer lives, the official said.
    The Dahiwadi police decided to question Deshmukh as they want to know why he contacted the woman, the official said. A search for him is underway, the official said.
    After recording his statement, further course of action will be decided, the official added.
    Earlier, the BJP minister had claimed the woman, who had accused him of harassment, tried to extort money from him to settle the matter.
    According to police, the woman demanded Rs 3 crore from Gore to end “everything” and was caught while accepting Rs 1 crore of the total amount.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)