Bengaluru: I am an Indian, why should I pay bribe,' shouts techie; cops beat him

Bengaluru: Little did Venky Nallagutla, an Andhra Pradesh-based software professional, know that on the night of Independence Day, calling himself an Indian and questioning traffic policemen for allegedly demanding a bribe would land him in the lock-up.

On Monday night, while the Independence Day fervour had gripped Bengalurueans, Venky was allegedly dragged into the K.R. Puram law and order police station by three traffic cops, was allegedly brutally beaten, kicked in the abdomen, forcibly kept behind bars for over six hours and later robbed of his gold chain and cash of Rs 3,000. His only mistake was to question the traffic policemen, who were demanding a bribe and not handing over a receipt.

A scared and humiliated Venky told Deccan Chronicle that the three traffic policemen assaulted him, dragged him to the law and order police station and rained blows on him when he questioned them for demanding the bribe and shouting that ‘I am an Indian’. He said, “One of my cousins was caught by the traffic policeman, who was conducting a drive on Monday night near Vinayaka Temple close to the K.R. Puram police station. My cousin, who is new to the city, had by mistake parked my car in a no-parking zone. The car was towed away by the traffic policemen. I received a call from my cousin who asked me to come to the traffic police station as the cops were not ready to listen to him.” He said, “I reached the spot and asked the traffic cops as to what went wrong, why my car was towed away and why they were are not issuing a receipt. But the policeman on duty started abusing me saying, ‘Who the hell are you?’ When I politely asked him to speak properly and not to abuse, the cop remarked, ‘Who you are to question me?’ I replied, ‘I am an Indian’. Immediately, three policemen surrounded me and started raining blows on me. When I tried to speak, they abused me and thrashed me even more severely,” he said.

Dragged into the car, forcibly put behind bars and robbed of money The policemen didn’t stop there. “After brutally thrashing me, the three policemen grabbed my gold chain worth nearly Rs 40,000, dragged me into their jeep and took me to the law and order police station. They also took away my two mobile phones and my wallet which had Rs 4,000 cash. After reaching the police station, they threatened to book a case against me for creating public nuisance and asked me to sit on the floor. They accused me of being drunk, but did not conduct an alcometer test nor took me to a hospital for the test,” he said.

Police reaction

When Deccan Chronicle reported the issue to DCP Traffic (East) Abhishek Goyal, he said, “I spoke to the victim and heard his complaint. He seemed to be confused and told me that the cops were from traffic police, law and order and he also Hoyasala. I have, however, directed the jurisdictional ACP to look into the matter, verify the complaint and conduct an inquiry. Appropriate action will be taken if the charges levelled against the staff are proved true.”