India, Feb. 4 -- A special court on Tuesday rejected an application filed by former Mumbai police officer, Sachin Waze, a central figure in an alleged Rs.100-crore extortion racket linked to former state home minister Anil Deshmukh, to drop money-laundering proceedings against him on grounds of lack of jurisdiction and absence of prosecution sanction.

Dismissing the plea, Special Judge Mahesh K Jadhav held that allegations of extortion, illegal demand and handling of unlawful funds could not be treated as acts performed in discharge of official duty and therefore did not attract the protection of sanction provisions applicable to public servants. The court recorded that such conduct was "extremely outside the scope of official duty" and ...