BENGALURU: When Tanya R, a student who lives in Kumaraswamy Layout, was planning to go out at night with a few friends for a birthday party, she wasn’t expecting the city’s policemen to stop her.
“We were three girls and four boys in the car and we were just about to leave when the cops came to us and asked us what we girls were doing so late in the night. They asked where we were going and why,” she said.
The policemen then asked for their ID cards and one girl, who wasn’t driving, showed her office card as she didn’t have any other ID proof on her. The policemen didn’t let them go, seized their car papers, which were all in order, and asked them to come to the police station to get them back, she said.
After half hour of questioning, arguments and pleas from the youngsters, the policemen finally relented.
But policemen say they ask people to go back home at night because of their concern for citizens’ safety.
However, the question on the minds of most citizens of such policing is: What is the duty of police? Restrict people’s movement or protect them when their freedom is threatened?
Police Commissioner M N Reddi said that policemen have not been asked to send citizens home at night. But citizens complain of cases of such over-policing.
A month back, Yogita Sengupta was standing close to Koshy’s on St Marks Road with two friends at 9.30 pm. She said a policeman asked her why she was out so late when there have been so many instances of rape. “He was constantly urging us to go home. One of my friends who knew Kannada said we were all in the media industry and had to work late hours,” she said.
This problem is not exclusive to women.
Matthew K, a student, too has faced such problems.
“It was around midnight and I was walking back home from a friend’s place. The cops stopped me and asked me why I was roaming around. They asked for my ID card, questioned me about what I was doing out on the street so late in the night and asked me to go back home. I don’t understand why they need to ask me to go home. I am not causing any problem to anyone,” he said.
However, not all cops are so blunt. Jeevana Viswanathan recalled the time she was sitting in a car with her male friend, chatting, at night. “A policeman came and requested us to go home saying it becomes unsafe at night. He was very polite.”
‘Stay Home, Be Safe’
When Express contacted Kumaraswamy Layout police station, the officer who responded asked why people need to move about late in the night. “Thieves, chain-snatchers and anti-social elements are always present in those hours and so, we ask people to go back home so they are safe,” he reasoned.
His sentiments were echoed by the officer who answered at Madiwala station; he described night-time movement as “unnecessary”. Meanwhile, Seshadripuram, Halasuru and JC Nagar officers said no such incidents have taken place in their areas.
(names changed to protect identities)
NO SUCH ORDER, SAYS REDDI
City Police Commissioner M N Reddi said policemen have not been given instructions to send citizens home at night. “But if this is happening, I will tell the personnel to do their duty of patrolling and not ask people to go back home,” he told Express.