Bengaluru cops announce African desk in expat outreach

An African desk will be set up in the office of the deputy commissioner of police (East) at Halasuru, city top cop Bhaskar Rao announced on Saturday.

The desk is aimed at bridging the communication gap between Bengaluru police and the large number of Africans living in the city. Rao urged Africans to approach the police if they face any problem instead of going to middlemen.

Rao announced the desk during an interaction with Africans organised by the police’s eastern division at New Horizon College in Kasturinagar. The eastern police division has jurisdiction over localities
such as KR Puram, Kammanahalli, Hennur, HBR Layout, Halasuru and
Indiranagar that have a large African population.

Named ‘Hello Africa’, the two-hour-long interaction was aimed at understanding the problems faced by the African community and warning it against indulging in crimes such as overstaying visas, drugs trade and prostitution.

Additional Commissioner of Police (East) S Murugan, Deputy Commissioner of Police (East) S D Sharanappa and Deputy Commissioner of Police (Intelligence) Dr M Ashiwini were also in attendance.

Rao asked the African community to take up self-policing and report crime-prone members to the police.

“In the past, we would take strict action against any African indulging in illegal activities. We now warn them,” he said.