A woman inspector and three of her colleagues were suspended on Thursday after a police inquiry found them guilty of forcing a street vendor to smoke ganja and fixing him in a false drugs case when he failed to pay the bribe.
Bengaluru Police Commissioner Kamal Pant signed the suspension order following a report by Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) Dharmender Kumar Meena.
The case exposes police high-handedness in Bengaluru. The action by the police top brass came after the victim tried to kill himself because of the drug stigma, and his family filed a complaint.
Here's how the things unfolded:
On July 14, around 8 pm, RMC Yard police inspector Parvathamma S picked up two men, Shivaraj and Nagendra, who were chatting outside their home near Poojamma Temple Road in Goraguntepalya, North Bengaluru. She bundled them into her patrol car and took them to the police station. The men had to spend the entire night in the lock-up without even knowing what their crime was. Police officers allegedly demanded bribes for their release.
The next day, police let Nagendra go after booking him in a petty case but Shivaraj, 45, wasn't so lucky. He was forced to smoke a ganja cigarette and take a medical test. Eventually, police booked him under the stringent Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. Shivaraj got bail on July 17 but was so traumatised by the turn of events that he consumed poison in order to kill himself. His family rushed him to hospital in the nick of time and doctors were able to save him.
The family decided to escalate the matter and complained to the DCP on July 19. Besides Parvathamma, they named sub-inspector Anjanappa and two police constables.
Meena, the DCP, summoned the four police officers for an inquiry and questioned them separately. But the clinching evidence was a mobile phone video recording of the incident.
The video shows Parvathamma picking up Shivaraj and Nagendra from their house. This was at odds with the FIR's claim that Shivaraj was picked up from Kuvempu Circle around 1 pm on July 14 by a constable named Eranna.
According to the FIR, Shivaraj was wobbly but wasn't drunk. The constable suspected he had taken drugs and took him to the police station. Shivaraj was later subjected to a medical test at a private hospital in Cox Town, which confirmed drug consumption, the FIR states.
As per the police inquiry, the only reason Shivaraj was framed in the false case was that he couldn't pay a bribe. He didn't have any money as his groundnut business suffered in the lockdown.
Secret recording
During the questioning, sub-inspector Anjanapa secretly recorded the conversation on his mobile phone. The DCP suspected something fishy in his body language and asked his staff to frisk him and check his phone. The DCP mentioned this in his inquiry report to the police commissioner.
The police officers have been suspended until further orders.