Sit in a park and face extortion! At the hands of BBMP home guard

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Too many incidents of law enforcement officers involved in harassment and corruption, are virtually forcing the public to avoid contact with policemen in the city. In a fresh case, a Delhi-based woman has complained of being harassed by an officer just for sitting inside a public park here.

Arsha Lateef reportedly landed in Bengaluru last week to meet her friend who had recently moved here. Using her twitter handle, Lateef narrated her ordeal of being extorted by an officer for sitting inside a park near Kundalahalli lake with her friend on Sunday. Soon, a person in khaki allegedly began capturing their pictures using his mobile phone.

He then approached the duo and introduced himself as a police office. It was alleged that the officer told the youngsters that they were sitting inside the park without permission and demanded that they come to the police station and speak to his senior officer. When the youngsters started questioning him, he offered them a deal. He asked them to pay Rs 1000 to him and avoid a meeting with the senior.  

The youngsters paid the amount but Lateef took a picture of the bike on which the officer had approached them. The matter was brought to the notice of the Bengaluru city police who nabbed the officer, identified as Manjunath Reddy V, a home guard attached to BBMP.