Mumbai: The Mumbai Police Crime Branch’s investigations into the alleged postings scam busted last week has indicated that the accused had contacts in various cities, who are suspected of helping them to zero in on potential targets.

On Wednesday, Deputy Commissioner of Police Namdeo Chavan, Solapur, alerted the Mumbai Crime Branch that he was being offered a posting of his choice in exchange for money. The Crime Branch subsequently arrested four people from Sahara Star hotel in Andheri on Wednesday and another in Pune on Sunday.

“We had earlier established that the accused had contacted officers across ranks from various parts of the state and offered to facilitate postings of their choice. Investigations have indicated that this was being done with the help of contacts in several cities, and we are working on to identify and apprehend them,” said an officer with the Crime Branch.

These contacts, like the arrested accused, move in government circles and are in a position to pick up gossip about policemen up for transfer or promotion and who are making requests to get postings of their choice for whatever reason.

Interrogation of the accused has also revealed that they would keep travelling to various cities for different purposes, which is how they came into contact with each other. “It was a habit of the accused to visit government establishments and make contacts with officials and civilians, who work as fixers. For example, Vidyasagar Hirmukhe and Ravindra Singh Yadav, who is from Delhi, met when the former was on a trip to Delhi to meet some government officials. Similarly, Kishore Mali, who is from Solapur, met Mr. Hirmukhe when he visited the Mantralaya earlier this year,” said another officer.

The police said they are interrogating the accused to verify the claims they are making, particularly the names of the police officers that they were in touch with. Once this is over, the Crime Branch will start making inquiries with the police officers.