Anxious over social media, police register weaker cases

Anxious that complainants take to social media to vent out their ire, the city police have begun registering even weak cases.

Recently, a 25-year-old woman lodged a complaint with the Mico Layout police, saying a man outraged her modesty as his leg graced her while he was alighting from a motorbike near a bakery.

The incident happened at 10.30 pm on August 4 at Vinayaka Bakery in BTM Layout, where the woman — who claims to work for an IT company — was having tea. The police said her paying guest accommodation was close by.

According to her complaint to the police, the man's leg brushed her while he was getting down from the bike and he spoke to her in Kannada that she does not understand. The woman shouted at him, saying she cannot understand Kannada, to which the man retorted that "people like her should go to Pakistan".

The Mico Layout police have taken up a complaint, booking the unidentified man under IPC Sections 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups on ground of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc) and 354 (sexual harassment).

"Though preliminary inquiries and investigation revealed that the man's actions were unintentional, we have taken up a case since he said she should go to Pakistan if she does not understand Kannada. We learnt that the woman did not belong to a minority community. Even then, we had our own apprehensions that she would post it on social media if we tried to strike a truce between them," a senior police official said.