The Bengaluru Police on Sunday suspended a constable and a head constable who extorted Rs 1,000 from a couple, saying that there was a penalty for walking on the road after 11 pm.
A departmental inquiry has also been initiated on the two police officials. They have been identified as Rajesh and Nagesh, according to The Times of India.
Anoop A Shetty, the deputy commissioner of police, Bengaluru (North East) said that a complaint had been filed about the two policemen from Hoysala police station, according to the newspaper.
The incident came to light after the victim, Karthik Patri, posted a Twitter thread, narrating his ordeal on December 9.
Patri and his wife were on their back home from a friend’s birthday a little after midnight that day.
“We were a few metres away from our entrance gate when a pink Hoysala patrol van stopped by us,” Patri wrote in his tweet. “Two men in police uniforms asked us to show our ID cards. We were taken aback. Why should an adult couple walking on the street on a normal day be asked to show their ID cards?”
After initial inquiry, the policemen confiscated phones of the couple and asked for their Aadhaar details. They demanded a fine of Rs 3,000 claiming that it was not allowed to “roam on the road after 11 pm”.
As the couple requested the policemen to let them go, they asked Patri to “pay a minimum amount to avoid further trouble”. The policemen also threatened that the couple could be arrested if they refuse to pay the fine.
After Patri relented to pay Rs 1,000, one of the policemen gave him a QR code to make the payment through the app PayTM.
“[They] let us ago with a stern warning: If I and my wife are ever seen walking on road at midnight, they would register a strong case,” Patri wrote on Twitter.
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