Two police constables attached to the South-East division of the Bengaluru police have been suspended after a city resident accused them of attempting to plant Marijuana in his bag and extorting Rs 2,500 from him. The incident occurred on January 11, when 22-year-old Vaibhav Patil, who hails from Himachal Pradesh and interns at a company in HSR Layout, was returning from work. Patil identified the two police constables as Teerth Kumar and Mallesh.
According to Patil, the officers accosted him while he was on his way home. They threatened and harassed in their attempts to extort a bribe. Narrating the incident through a series of Tweets, Patil also alleged that the officers told him that they stood to get a reward of Rs 15,000 each if they turned him in for drug abuse. Patil claimed that the officers extorted Rs 2,500 from him.
He said that the officer took his bag and started looking through it, then took out something that looked like a small twig and asked ‘what’s this?’ and then asked ‘You smoke ganja?’ Patil stated that he was shaken as he was not involved in any illegal activities and alleged that the officer had planted the “ganja” in his bag. Patil said he was later forced to admit that he smoked marijuana and was taken by the officers on their two-wheeler to a police station, where he was told that they would be rewarded handsomely for his arrest.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) CK Baba said that the southeast division night-beat police have been given body-worn cameras and directed them to switch them on while on duty. However, in this incident, he said that the cameras were not switched on and hence action has been taken against the constables under dereliction of duty, The Hindu report. The two police constables, Teerth Kumar and Mallesh have been suspended pending the outcome of the inquiry.