Cop under fire for behaving rudely with Kerala student

Hebbal police are under fire for behaving rudely with a student from Kerala when he visited the station to inquire about transport to his home state on Wednesday.

Amal Madhu, an MBA student at a private college, narrated the incident on social media, tagging city police commissioner Bhaskar Rao, which went viral.

Rao subsequently instructed the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northeast), Bheemashankar S Guled, to verify the incident. He then tweeted back that he regretted Madhu’s experience and said that he had instructed the DCP to verify the incident. He also said no one should be humiliated like that.

Rao instructed the DCP to initiate action against the errant officers and sensitise them to the need to help the people irrespective of language and appreciate diversity.

In the social media post, Madhu wrote that he had gone to the Hebbal police station seeking information about inter-state-travel. As he does not know Kannada, he spoke in English. But the officer at the desk shouted at him in Kannada, which he could not understand.

He tried to explain to the officer that he is a student at the Atria Institute of Technology and wanted information on inter-state-travel.

However, the officer humiliated Madhu and even mimicked him. He asked him if his home state didn’t have colleges and why he had come to Bengaluru to study. The officer asked him to run to his hometown as there were no buses.

Madhu wondered if this is how the police behaved with students like him, what would be the condition of migrant workers. He said he decided to disclose the incident to express his feelings, not gain sympathy.

A senior police officer said he had summoned the officer for an inquiry. “Police officers are working day and night during the lockdown and such an incident shows the entire police force in poor light. We will ensure that such incidents do not recur, the officer added.