Cops encash' gullibility of women, poor: Lawyer Gopala Krishna Kalanidhi

Hyderabad: Senior advocate Gopala Krishna Kalanidhi held an explosive press conference on Sunday accusing the AP and TS police of exploiting  the gullibility of women and the poor to make money. Kalanidhi cited 22 cases which he had argued in which the police delayed filing FIRs and eventually slowed down investigation. He cited the case of 20-year-old Niharika (name changed) who married a cabbie, Sampangi Raju in January. Within a week he abandoned her. Soon she found out that the cab driver was planning to marry another woman. She approached S.R. Nagar police station on April 13 but she was dismissed with a complaint receipt.

An FIR was not registered. Meanwhile, the cab driver married another woman. The police filed an FIR as per Sections 494 and 498(A) of IPC charging bigamy later.   But the SR Nagar police says they followed protocol. Inspector Waheeduddin said, “She didn't produce any proof of marriage or witness. So we didn't file the FIR. A month later she approached us with WhatsApp messages from the suspect and we filed the FIR.” Advocate Kalanidhi says it was his intervention that led to the filing of the FIR or else the victim would have been denied justice as the police was hand in glove with erring husbands.

Citing another case of fraud he said that a techie came forward accusing the Uppal police of 'counselling' her to change her ways instead of filing an FIR for over a year, until the court intervened. The suspect in this case had sex with the victim and promised her marriage whenever she became pregnant. She was forced to abort four times and the suspect married another woman. The suspect had also taken loans in her name. The victim alleged that the Uppal police took a bribe of Rs 500 to file the FIR this year in May and said she had a voice recording of the suspect claiming that he paid Rs 2 lakh to the police.

Uppal inspector Narsimha Reddy said, "Instead of holding press conferences the person should approach the court directly to get justice." When asked about the SI who allegedly misbehaved with the techie in the second case he said the SI was transferred last year. The advocate demanded a CBI inquiry into the police shielding suspects and harassing complainants who had to deal not only with the case but with police corruption. “The police is corrupt. The government should digitise the filing of FIRs by constituting a panel of retired judges who would look into each complaint and decide if the FIR should be filed or not,” said Kalanidhi.