Bengaluru: Hebbagodi police station staff refuse to register complaint at night

BENGALURU: Next time when you go to the Hebbagodi police station in Bengaluru Rural to file a complaint, beware! The policemen on duty do not register the complaint after 10 pm. They allegedly lock the station doors, switch off the lights and doze off. Recently, a mother and her son had a harrowing time at the police station when they went to file a complaint of assault and threat to life. The night duty policemen refused to register the complaint and asked them to wait till the morning.

The policemen woke up from their deep slumber and swung into action only after IGP (Central Range) Arun Chakravorty was alerted. Mr Chakravorty immediately took note of the incident and directed the policemen to register the FIR. The incident took place on May 13 after N. Senthil Kumar, a resident of Ananthnagar, Anekal taluk and who hails from Tamil Nadu, went to the police station along with his mother to register a case against his landlord Vidya Shankar.

Senthil told Deccan Chronicle, “I was busy in my office when I received a call from my mother in the evening, saying that the landlord had barged into the house along with his two henchmen, assaulted my mother and pushed her out of the house before locking it. I immediately left for home and found my mother standing on the street for six long hours waiting for help to arrive.”

He said, “I approached City Police Commissioner M.N. Reddi, and he asked me to get in touch with Rural SP B. Ramesh. The SP directed me to go to the Hebbagodi police station and lodge a complaint. The officer said that he has informed the police inspector, who would help register the complaint.”

But when the 26-year-old reached the police station around 10 pm along with his 55-year-old mother N. Malliga, the ASI on duty allegedly refused to register the complaint. “He told me that the SI concerned was not at the station and that we have to return the next day. When I told him that the SP had asked me to register the complaint, he turned a deaf ear, switched off the lights and slept while my 55-year-old mother kept pleading with him to register the complaint,” Mr Kumar said.

After waiting for over five hours at the station, Senthil rushed his mother to a lodge as she started fainting. “It was 4 am and none of the policemen helped us,” he said. Unwilling to give up, Senthil approached Mr Chakravorty on May 14, and the officer immediately took note of the complaint and directed the station police inspector to register the complaint.