Two police personnel in Bengaluru who allegedly extorted a couple, in the name of patrolling, were suspended on Sunday. The department also initiated further action against the two after the Twitter complaint went viral and said that such behaviour will not be tolerated. A post on the official handle of Bengaluru Police read, “Two police personnel from @sampigehallips responsible for the incident have been identified, suspended and departmental action initiated. @BlrCityPolice will not tolerate deviant behavior from its staff.”
On Friday night, a resident named Karthik Patri shared a long thread about a traumatic incident that left him and his wife shocked. He wrote, “I would like to share a traumatic incident my wife and I encountered the night before. It was around 12:30 midnight. My wife and I were walking back home after attending a friend’s cake-cutting ceremony. a pink Hoysala patrol van stopped by us. Two men in police uniforms asked us to show our ID cards. We were taken aback. Why should an adult couple walking on the street on a normal day be asked to show their ID cards?”
However, according to Patri, the couple showed their Aadhaar cards that were saved on their mobile phones. “To our surprise, they took our phones away and started quizzing us about our relationship, place of work, parental details, etc. Though a bit shaken, we answered their questions politely. At this point, one of them took out what looked like a challan book and started noting down our names and Aadhaar numbers. Sensing trouble, we asked why we were being issued a challan,” he tweeted.
The two police personnel then said that they are not allowed to roam on the road after 11pm and demanded Rs. 3,000 as penalty, said Patri. “We apologized for being ignorant about the rule and assured them of not venturing out at night again. We thought we were over it, but it was as if the two men were waiting for this moment. They refused to let us go and demanded ₹3,000 as penalty. Our hearts sunk,” read another tweet.
Patri also said that they were threatened to be arrested if the demanded amount was not paid. He added, “They showed us pictures of convicts and threatened us of dire consequences if we didn’t pay up. I could barely hold my nerve, while my wife was in tears. The man in the driving seat took me aside and advised that I pay a minimum amount to avoid further trouble.” Patri also claimed that he had paid ₹1,000 through a Paytm scanner. “I agreed to pay ₹1,000 and get done with it. The man immediately held up a Paytm QR code, waited for me to scan it and make the payment, and let us go with a stern warning,” added Karthik Patri.
The thread went viral on the internet with many residents questioning the sheer corruption of Bengaluru police.
