CHENNAI: In an incident that could shake people’s faith in the city’s policing system, a policeman on Thursday allegedly leaked the mobile number of a complainant to a suspected bar owner in JJ Nagar, who issued threats to the former over phone.
Every call made to the Control Room at ‘100’ is maintained in the ledger for official use and to track down mischief or hoax calls. However, the details ought not to be disclosed to anyone other than the respective police stations having jurisdiction over the complaint.
On Thursday, a journalist working with an online news portal lodged a complaint with the control room that there was free flow of liquor at a bar attached to a TASMAC shop in Golden George Nagar near Mugappair on a day when liquor outlets were meant to be closed to mourn the death of former President APJ Abdul Kalam.
In a short while, the complainant received a couple of threat calls from a man who sounded inebriated. The caller claimed to be a policeman named Senthil.
The complainant, ‘Ottran’ Durai, told Express that he received a call even before the JJ Nagar Police could act on his complaint. “I am wondering whether it was done deliberately or is there any way by which details of the complainant could be disclosed to the suspect,” he said. “I received two threat calls from two numbers — 9786556369 and 9840090199 — and the caller identified himself as one Senthil from JJ Nagar Police Station. He wanted to know why I was bothered about liquor sale on a dry day and abused me for ruining his business, besides swearing to teach me a lesson,” Durai recalled.
“It is obvious that the caller was not a cop, but some goon or the bar owner himself,” he added.
“Someone from the patrol team which responded to the call could have tipped off the bar owners about the call. The cop in question must have taken bribe from the bar people,” admitted a senior police official.