BENGALURU: Next time you visit a public park or lake, watch out. There are extortionists in uniform on the prowl. A woman from Delhi has accused a home guard of not only acting as moral police but also extorting money from her. She has said that her only ‘crime’ was that she was sitting with her male friend inside a park at Kundalahalli in Whitefield police division.
The incident took place on Sunday afternoon and came to light on Tuesday after the victim Arsha Latif (25) posted her experience on Twitter and tagged the city police. She also posted pictures of the bike on which the home guard came. The accused allegedly took Rs 1,000 from her friend for sitting in the park without taking permission.
HAL police arrested the accused, V Manjunatha Reddy (47), a home guard attached to the BBMP. He is posted by the BBMP at ITI Colony Unit for patrolling. He extorted the money through UPI on January 29 around 2.30 pm.
Arsha, who works with an MNC in Delhi, was on a visit to Bengaluru to meet her friend, a software engineer in the city.
S Girish, DCP, Whitefield division, told TNIE, “The victim had come to see her friend in the city. The accused, Reddy, is not a cop but a home guard. He is a resident of KR Puram and a native of Srinivasapura in Kolar. We will check his bank account to ascertain whether he is a habitual extortionist.”
Arsha’s tweet read, “Traumatic experience during a visit to BLR. During the afternoon on 29/1/23 my male friend & I visited Kundanahalli Lake to sit in the shade and enjoy the view. A cop started harassing us that we did not have permission’ to sit there.”
This is the fourth such incident in the last two months, where men in khaki have extorted money from innocent people. In December last year, two policemen attached to the Sampigehalli police station were suspended for extorting money from a couple for walking late at night.
A few days later, two cops attached to Adugodi police station were suspended for taking money from a couple for smoking in a public place. In January, two policemen attached to the Bandepalya police station were suspended for extorting money from youth by placing marijuana in his bag.