Standfirst: Hearing anticipatory bail pleas of two Pune constables accused of extorting a citizen during nakabandi duty, Justice Madhav Jamdar is learnt to have come down heavily on the state government, questioned whether the Investigating Officer was shielding the accused constables, and directed the Director General of Police, Maharashtra, to file an affidavit in the matter.
The Bombay High Court on Wednesday took up anticipatory bail applications filed by constables ,booked for allegedly extorting money from a citizen in Pune. Justice Jamdar was sharply critical of the state's handling of the matter, asking counsel for the state whether the government stood by such conduct on the part of its police force. The judge is also understood to have questioned whether the Investigating Officer was going soft on or backing the accused constables during the probe, and directed the DGP of Maharashtra to file an affidavit addressing these concerns. The matter has been listed for further hearing.
The Allegation :-
According to the FIR registered at Faraskhana Police Station, informant Manish Bisht alleged that on the night of June 29, 2026, while he was walking from Dagdusheth Ganpati Temple towards Laxmi Road, two policemen stopped him on a motorcycle, demanded his ID and Aadhaar card, and threatened to drag him to court unless he paid them Rs. 5,000 each. He further alleged he was taken to Budhwar Peth, where the officers forced him to transfer Rs. 2,000 via a woman's QR code — and then filmed the episode and circulated the video on Instagram. Fear of the police, he said, kept him from reporting the matter immediately.
The Defence — and Why the Court Rejected It
The accused argued they were innocent bystanders who had merely helped settle a dispute between the informant and a sex worker over unpaid dues. The court, however, found this version contradicted by the statement of the woman who received the QR payment — she made no mention of any dispute over sex work, only that the police brought the informant to her, had him pay online, and later collected the equivalent amount from her in cash.
The session of Pune while rejecting bail application remarked :-
Rejecting the plea, the judge invoked a pointed Marathi proverb — roughly, "if the fence meant to guard the field starts eating the crop, who is left to complain to?" — underscoring that men deployed to secure the public were instead preying on it. The court held custodial interrogation was warranted and denied the officers the discretionary relief of anticipatory bail.