'Cops used my husband as honey trap to extort money from gay men'

The arrest of a Marathi actor by the Panvel police last month has blown the lid off a shameful racket involving at least eight Government Railway Police officials who allegedly used to lure gay men using the 23yearold actor as a honeytrap and then harassed and extorted money from them by threatening to tell their families about their sexual orientationSupriya with husband Ajinkya ShindeWhatrsquos worse when one of their victims refused to play ball and complained to the police after catching the actor and a GRP constable in the act the officials allegedly made Ajinkya the scapegoat and arrested him in the case while the constable was allowed to go scotfree with the police claiming that he was merely ldquotrying to helprdquoAjinkya Shinde used to pose as a homosexual and lure men at urinals in Panvel Kharghar and Belapur stations IllustrationsAmit BandreWith Ajinkyarsquos wife Supriya 23 making these allegations to the GRP commissioner however an inquiry has been initiated into the officialsrsquo involvement ldquoMy husband is not gay he was lured into doing this for the GRP with the promise of money and a police jobHe would then take his target to an isolated spot where the GRP officials would show upThey also told him that he could use the railways freely and he would never be caught because he would be associated with themrdquo Supriya told middayThey would extort money from the unsuspecting man by threatening to expose his sexual orientation to his friends and family Ajinkya would get a cut and would be let goReeled inAjinkya used to live in Mangaon and had come to live in Panvel in November 2014 after getting married to Supriya Since Ajinkya did not have a job at the time he started looking for ways to support him and Supriya and even tried his hand at cooking at a restaurant which he gave up in a couple of daysSupriya said ldquoI got married to Ajinkya last year and we shifted to Panvel In December Ajinkya met Assistant Police Inspector Rajkumar Jadhav of the Belapur GRP and the officer offered him work with the police promising that he would earn wellrdquoldquoJadhav introduced Ajinkya to constable Mangesh Rakshe who told my heterosexual husband that he would have to pose as a gay man and try and attract homosexual men by standing near the railway urinals at Panvel Belapur and Kharghar stationsHe told Ajinkya that his part would involve just attracting the target and leading him to an isolated place after which the GRP officials would take overrdquo she said ldquoThe policemen used to let my husband go and extort money from the target by threatening to expose their sexual leanings to their family and friendsThe GRP officials offered decent money for this work to my husbandrdquo Supriya said Around this time Ajinkya also got selected to work in two Marathi movies and he shot for themMore the merrierA month after Ajinkya started working for the police some other GRP officers Constables Ganesh Mirange Rahul Ahire Kadam and Zurungay Court Karkun ASI Wagh and Police SubInspector Kalve also met Ajinkya according to Supriya and asked him to do the same work for them Ajinkya did this for about three months and used to make a good sum dailyExposedThe GRP copsrsquo thriving extortion racket unravelled in February however when Ajinkya and Constable Kadam tried to threaten a bank employee and their move backfired The RBI employee Parthasarathi 28 approached Ajinkya at Kharghar station and the latter allegedly threatened to expose his sexual orientation if he wasnrsquot paidParthasarathi was trying to record this when Kadam came in The duo allegedly robbed Parthasarathi of Rs 8000 Supriya said ldquoParthasarathi informed senior officers about this and then registered a case with the Panvel GRP for assault and robbery PSI Kalve resolved the matter in the police station itself and released my husbandrdquoScapegoatParthasarathi did not give up and wrote an email to GRP Commissioner Dr Ravinder Singal to complain ldquoWhen PSI Kalve and constable Zurungay got wind of this they told my husband to go underground for a month and avoid travelling even by train as the matter had reached the commissioner levelOn March 3 however they called him to the police station claiming they just needed to sort some things out and would let him go but arrested him in the fake robbery caserdquo said Supriya ldquoThe case is obviously fake because a constable was with Ajinkya when the alleged robbery took place and if my husband was involved in a crime he could have caught him right then No money was recovered from Ajinkyardquo she addedldquoSo many officers are involved in this crime and they had lured my husband with money and even a job with the police if he helped them in the racket These same officers are now threatening that they will not leave us alone and will arrest Ajinkya in another case if we donrsquot keep our mouths shutrdquo