Khaki Badnaam Hui: Cops thrash RWA members for ‘disconnecting water supply’

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Yet another incident of alleged high-handedness from the city police has drawn a lot of criticism from the netizens. A video clip, which is being widely shared over various social media platforms, shows several cops from the city assaulting members of the resident welfare association near Mahavir Orchid in Rayasandra near Parappana Agrahara.

The video shared by Citizens Movement, a Twitter handle belonging to a group of social activists in Bengaluru, carried captions alleging that the policemen are beating up members who were cutting water supply to defaulters.

The activists had also tagged the Director General of Police, Praveen Sood. Later, the members of the welfare association alleged that the water supply to a resident, identified as Gangadhar, was cut off because he had allegedly refused to pay the maintenance fee for a long time and often created chaos in the society.

Following the incident, residents in the area expressed their disappointment over the reckless behaviour of the policemen and asked DGP Karnataka to take action. However, no complaint was registered regarding the case.

“RWA runs as per guidelines defined by the law and if the cops have some issues, they need to take it up officially and not hit the people. This is unethical and wrong. Every forum in Bengaluru should spread the word about the rash behaviour of such policemen,” said Nitin Kumar, a resident of the locality.

However, some people also had an opinion that RWA cutting off the water supply was not correct. Electronic City Rising, another welfare association in the city said, “Associations can’t disconnect water supply or any other essential services; they shouldn’t take the law into their hands, this behaviour of police is also not acceptable, they can handle situations in a better way.

RWA should file a civil suit against the tenant rather than disconnect the supply of essential services. There is a procedure laid down in many judgments from courts,” said the forum.