Police begin probe into alleged ganja planting by city cops

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: In the wake of a series of tweets by a person alleging the role of two city police officers in planting ganja in his bag to extort money from him, the police on Saturday recorded his statement in the matter.

Officers from Bandepalya police station in Bengaluru South East division recorded the statements of Vaibhav Patil, 22, who hails from Himachal Pradesh and works as an intern at a firm in HSR layout. Patil is said to be working as an intern at a firm in HSR layout.

He has identified two police constables – Teerth Kumar and Malesh, who allegedly tried to plant evidence in his bag and extorted Rs 2,500 from him. The event is said to have taken place around 4 am on January 11. Without giving out much detail, the police have said that an inquiry has been initiated and action will be taken if the allegations were found to be true.

After the tweets began making much noise on social media, DCP (South East) C K Baba tweeted, “Dear Vaibhav. We understand that you are worried and scared. Request you to DM your details and meet me at my office ASAP, and be assured that we will initiate action.”

Patil in his Twitter thread said that he was stopped by two patrolling officers while returning from work on a Rapido, and was “threatened” and “harassed” by them. He also said that the cops claimed that his arrest would mean a Rs 15,000 reward. However, the thread has now been deleted.

Patil has said that he has deleted the tweets as he had created abundance of awareness over the experience he went through and did not want to be subjected to any kind of pressure. He has been residing in the city for the past six months