Cops drop a catch taken by BBMP

On Saturday night, BBMP Joint Commissioner (Bommanahalli), Shivabasavaiah along with his team of four officers, at serious risk to their lives, seized 14 giant lorries that were trying to dump excavated mud from a building site into the Begur Lake.

It is learnt that the 14 lorry drivers were hired by a ‘developer’ to transport excavated mud from Richmond Town in the City to the lake for dumping under the cover of dark.

At 11.45 pm, out on inspection in the Bommanahalli jurisidiction, the JC and his team of engineers stumbled upon the massive ‘racket’ which was out to fill the tank bed area with mud and reduce the area of the lake.

“We were out on a intensive cleaning round when four to five lorries arrived on the scene to dump the mud. Immediately, we called in our ‘Prahari’ (Inspection vehcile) for backup and also informed the local Electronic City police station,” said Shivabasaviah.

With 10 more lorries arriving on the scene, the BBMP officers siezed the vehicles, and took away the keys from the drivers.

They handed over the vehicles and the keys to  the police who arrived on the scene later in the night. Around 2 am, the BBMP officers registered a complaint with the police.

Shivabasavaiah asked police to file cases under the IPC, CrPC and the Karnataka Pollution Control Act to ensure that the drivers were taken into custody and not let off.

However, the Electronic  City police, who appear to have taken the case ‘lightly’, filed cases on petty charges and produced them in court.

According to Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) (South East), B N S Reddy, who was kept in the dark about the incident till Deccan Herald informed him on Sunday evening, the local police had filed charges against the drivers for illegally dumping construction material on BBMP property.

That constitutes a dilution of the offence, say BBMP officials, considering the seriousness of the action of the drivers.

Having learnt from the media about the charges levelled by the police, Shivabasavaiah said a report would be sent to the Palike Commissioner to take further action.