Japanese man wins legal fight with Karnataka cops

By Hameed Ashraf | NT

Bengaluru: J apanese national Hirotoshi Tanaka has won a long legal battle against Karnataka Police. On Thursday, the Karnataka Human Rights Commission ordered the police to pay him Rs 70,000 as compensation for harassment and FOR failing to follow the investigation procedure.

Tanaka, who lives in Yaizu City in Japan, sounded excited when he was told about the verdict. “Justice has finally been served. I will visit India again soon,” he said from Japan.

Tanaka’s troubles began eight months after he landed in Bengaluru in March 2019 apparently to learn English.

In November that year, RT Nagar Police detained him for allegedly assaulting the principal of the English training centre. Tanaka insisted that it was a false case. Nonetheless, he tendered a written apology at the station.

But the police summoned him a week later and sent him to Parappana Agrahara Prison. The police took away his passport, credit cards, debit cards, cash and mobile phone after the arrest. He was not even allowed to contact his family or the Japanese consulate. 

The police even denied him medicines for attention deficit/ hyperactivity disorder. He spent 19 days before getting bail in December 2019.

When he was out on bail, RT Nagar Police SubInspector Hanumantharayappa (now retired) demanded from Tanaka Rs 8,500 as bribe for returning his bag which had been under his custody.

Tanaka got a huge reprieve when the Karnataka High Court quashed the First Information Report in November 2020. Following this, the Japanese national approached the human rights panel, requesting to probe the corruption allegations against the officers.

His visa expiry date was fast approaching at that time, but Tanaka found a way to stay back in India: steal a chair from the Assistant Commissioner of Police’s office in RT Nagar. He even clicked selfies to prove his ‘crime’ and took the ‘booty’ to his house in BTM Layout.

Despite his ‘best’ efforts, the police did not arrest him. For they had been waiting for his visa to expire.

On March 3, 2021, apparently on his visa expiry, the police took him to the Foreigners’ Regional Registration Office. They eventually deported him to Japan on April 23, 2021.

But Tanaka continued his legal fight against Karnataka Police from Japan. He arranged his own advocates as he wanted to prove his innocence.

And Tanaka had the last laugh when the human rights panel realised the police’s high-handedness.

“It appears that police officers concerned failed to follow the procedure. The PSI of RT Nagar police station was permitted to register the crime and to investigate the matter under IPC 323, 506 in the Non-cognizable report against the accused. So clearly there is no order by the court for arrest of the petitioner as seen in the intimation given to the PSI nor was there any warrant for arrest,” the order stated.