A bunch of nosy policemen who crossed their line while dealing with foreigners were in the dock, as the visitors filed a complaint against them with the Indian Embassy about their unpleasant trip to India.
A British national lodged a complaint with the Indian post in their country that some policemen in Guntur town of Andhra Pradesh behaved "annoyingly" with him and other 40 guests who came from the UK to attend a function at their friend's place.
The Indian embassy, in turn, forwarded the complaint to the DGP of Andhra Pradesh Police M Malakondaiah and sought an inquiry.
Officials, so far, have identified three policemen, including one counter-intelligence (anti-terrorist force) and two from the special branch, as having spoken rudely with the visiting foreigners.
The incident occurred two weeks ago, when the tourists, mostly from Ireland, came to Guntur to attend a function.
They all then reported their arrival and their itinerary at the special branch office (foreigners registration office) in Amaravati.
However, policemen arrived at the function and reportedly started taking pictures of the visitors.
They also directed the tourists to produce their passports and questioned them about why so many of them had come to the function.
Later, one of the guests lodged a complaint with the embassy through an email.
"It is the duty of the policeman to verify. They might have asked the visitors to furnish their travel documents but allegations of annoying and rude behaviour have to be verified. I have asked my Guntur officials to verify who were the policemen who visited the function venue and what transpired between the policemen and the foreigners," Malakondaiah told reporters.
He clarified that there were no allegations of extortion by the police personnel as had appeared in certain sections of the media.
