A woman had committed suicide and the police allegedly demanded Rs 45,000 from a man for not booking him in the case in Nidagundi village of Belagavi’s Raibag taluk, a report by Deccan Herald states.
Angered by the incident, MLA of Kudachi, Belagavi, P Rajeev threatened to set the Raibag Circle Police station on fire if the police harass innocent people, demand money from them or threaten to book them in false cases, the report states.
Rajeev is a former police officer, who joined politics after quitting service in 2008.
The Raibag Circle Police had allegedly threatened a local of the village, Basappa Bhajantri of fixing him in a case where a woman had allegedly committed suicide.
While outraging at the police, the MLA told them that Bhajantri was with him while he was campaigning for the Agriculture Produce Marke Committee polls when the woman had committed suicide, the report adds.
The police had allegedly demanded Rs 1 lakh from Bhajantri and later settled for Rs 45,000 to not fix him in the case. Fearing that a false case would be filed against him, Bhajantri had absconded for a few days, it states.
Rajeev told DH that he had made the statement in a fit of rage as he was angered by the policemen because they were supposed to be protecting people. He also said that police stations should not become centres of political deals.
Earlier this week, a video of Rajeev abusing a Municipal Officer had gone viral on social media.
In the video, an MLA was taking the civic officer Siddappa Sane to task over the delay in completing the survey of government lands during a visit to the office of the Raibag tahsildar. The MLA was speaking in relation to the alleged encroachment on government lands in the Kudachi Assembly constituency.
The MLA had asked the officials to survey the lands and mark the boundaries to reclaim encroached property.
“You are being paid salaries to protect government land. If you cannot perform your duties then seek transfers,” Rajeev is heard telling the surveyor in the video.