Bengaluru cops in ganja racket; 2 officers suspended

NT CORRESPONDENT

Bengaluru: Following the recent arrest of two policemen deputed for security duty at the residence of Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai in RT Nagar for alleged possession of ganja, City Police Commissioner Kamal Pant has suspended RT Nagar police station inspector Ashwath Gowda and sub-inspector Veerabhadraiah for dereliction of duty.

The two policemen, identified as Shiva Kumar and Santosh attached to the Koramangala police station, were arrested on January 13 by the RT Nagar police, and nearly 400 grams of ganja was seized from them.

Both the policemen had managed to obtain bail within two days of the arrest, and this has prompted the city police chief to take action against the two senior officers attached to the RT Nagar police station. They have been suspended for their failure to stop the two erring policemen from obtaining bail by submitting proper documents to the court.

The commissioner has also issued a memo to Srinath Joshi, Deputy Commissioner of Police (South East) for deputing the two policemen for the chief minister’s security duty without checking their antecedents. Joshi heads the Koramangala police station where the two arrested policemen are attached. Another memo was issued to the concerned officer of the VIP section for not providing fool-proof security cover to the chief minister’s residence.

It may be recalled that Kumar and Santosh along with Akhil Raj and Ahmjad Khan, both habitual drug peddlers, were arrested by the Hoysala patrolling staff. On Thursday the police control room received information about the presence of a suspicious auto on 80ft road in RT Nagar police station limits.

The Hoysala staff immediately reached the spot, detained four people, of whom two turned out to be policemen, and seized the auto. All four were brought to the police station.