Cop detains women illegally, again

Barely four days after their release from illegal detention in Kothanur police station, two women underwent a similar ordeal on Thursday.

This time, they were detained at Sampigehalli Police station by Inspector Nanjunde Gowda, according to a complaint filed with the Lokayukta police.

Following a raid by the Lokayukta police, Inspector Purushottam and a constable were suspended for illegally detaining Deepika, her sister Suma, their family friend Babu and two others for five days and demanding money for their release.

While Purushottam was arrested, constable Manjunath escaped with Rs five lakh in cash Babu’s relative Girish had brought to pay as “bribe” to Purushottam.

On Wednesday, Inspector Gowda, who claimed to be a good friend of Purushottam, told the five persons to appear before him in the Sampigehalli station the next day, said Babu in his complaint to the Lokayukta police on Friday.   

Babu said: “The inspector told me that Purushottam was his very good friend and that I should not have lodged a complaint with the Lokayukta.

“He also said that he was handling the investigation (into suicide of Naveen Kumar, Deepika’s husband). If any complaint was lodged against us, he would send us straight to jail.”

Deepika and Suma were detained till 7 pm in the station, violating the rules that women cannot be detained in a police station after 6 pm.

Babu said the police changed their statement with regard to Kumar’s death.  “They say that Naveen Kumar and I were partners in the real estate business. But, we were never partners in any venture. Now, we really don’t know what to do,” he said.

The Lokayukta police told Babu not to go to the police station the next time he was summoned.

Though Additional Commissioner of Police T Suneel Kumar had earlier said that a special squad would be formed to trace the constable, the police  have been unable to trace him.