In another incident of extortion, a woman who was visiting Bengaluru was asked to pay Rs 1000 for 'sitting without permission' by a man who claimed he was a police officer. The woman, Arsha Latif, was sitting on a bench with a friend and were visiting the Kundalahalli Lake on Sunday, January 29. After the incident, Latif tweeted about the incident, "Traumatic experience during visit to BLR. During the afternoon on 29/1/23, my male friend and I visited Kundalahalli Lake to sit in the shade and enjoy the view. A cop started clicking our pictures and started harassing us that we did not have 'permission' to sit there while there were clearly benches... for general public."
In a series of tweets, Latif described the incident and said that the officer clicked their pictures and then began harassing them for sitting near the lake. The officer also asked them details such as their job and purpose of visit and said that they will have to visit the police station and pay a fine on grounds of sitting without permission.
“When we asked what we had done wrong, he said you are not allowed to sit here without permission & you may be smoking here. We told him we don't have any cigarettes and we're just sitting here peacefully but he kept on interrogating us as to what the two of us were up to,” her tweets further said. Arsha and her friend were finally let go after paying Rs 1000.
H.A.L police arrested the accused identified as Manjunatha Reddy, who is not a police officer but a home guard attached to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike.