Cops held near CM’s house now face extortion charge

Praveen Kumar | NT

Bengaluru: It appears there is more in store for the two police constables who were recently arrested along with two drug peddlers, for alleged possession of ganja, near the Chief Minister’s house in RT Nagar.

A 34-year-old driver has now filed a complaint against the two arrested policemen accusing them of extortion. The complainant, who claims to be a drug addict, was caught by the two policemen near the Koramangala BDA complex.

They demanded Rs 1 lakh for setting him free without any police case and subsequent legal hassles. After extorting Rs 5,000 from him, the two policemen had let him go. After the news of the two policemen came into the media, the driver claims he mustered courage to file a complaint against them.

The complainant has been identified as Alla Bakash Illiyaz, a driver by profession and a resident of LR Nagar in Adugodi. He filed a complaint in Koramangala police station on Wednesday. The alleged extortion happened on October 25, last year.

Based on Illiyaz’s complaint, Shiva Kumar has been accused number one, while Santosh is accused number two. Kumar is a resident of Adugodi police quarters while Santosh is the resident of Austin Town police quarters in Neelasandra.

In his police complaint, Illiayaz had stated that on October 25, at around 11 pm, while he and his friend Syed Alim were smoking weed near the Koramangala’s BDA complex, the two policemen Kumar and Santosh saw them. Alim managed to escape from the spot and he was caught by the two policemen.

The two policemen after checking him recovered a small packet of ganja that could fill three cigarettes. Both the policemen are alleged to have threatened to take him to the police station and file a complaint. They also told him that they will set him free if he gives them Rs 1 lakh in cash. “When the complainant said he did not have so much money, the accused policemen took away Rs 5000 which was with him. They asked him to go after a warning not to disclose the matter with anyone. He has further claimed that he did not have the courage at that particular moment to file a complaint against the two policemen as he feared getting jailed,” said a police officer.

After he got to know that the two policemen were caught near the CM’s house, Illiyaz claims to have mustered courage to file a complaint. The Koramangala police have registered a case of extortion under section 384 of the IPC against the two policemen.