Inspector among 11 police personnel suspended for their links with peddlers in Bengaluru

A police inspector was among 11 police personnel who have been suspended pending departmental inquiry for allegedly being hand in glove with a gang of peddlers selling drugs to be used as sedatives in and around the west division.

Chamarajapete inspector T Manjanna, head constable Ramesh, constables Shivraj, Madhusudan, Prasanna, Shankar Belagali, Anand and JJ Nagar police personnel, Basavanagudi Gowda, Kumar and Anand are among the suspended police personnel who used to allegedly collect “protection money” from the peddlers every month to allow them sell tablets to be used as drugs after dilution.

The racket was busted when RR Nagar police caught a group of six peddlers among them, Salman, Nayazullag Khan, Nayaz Khan and Taher Patel, on August 22 red-handed while peddling the tablets to their customers who are students and young working class. The police seized 1000 tablets from them which are banned from over the counter sale.

The police during the course of investigation, found that the accused were in regular touch with the Chamrajapete and JJ Nagar police.

The matter was brought to the notice of ACP Kengeri gate, Bharath Reddy who submitted a detailed report to the DCP. The case was then handed over to Vijayanagar ACP, Chandan for a detailed probe.

Probe revealed that the police were hand in glove with the peddlers and receiving protection money and partying with them, sources said.

This incident has brought major embarrassment to the police department as on the one hand, the police claim to have waged a war against the drug network, while on the other hand, the police themselves were found to be hand in glove with the peddlers.

The city police are facing a challenge to deal with such kinds of drug racket as it does not comes under NDPS act due to their nature.

Some police officials said that they are presently booking the cases under section 278 of BNS, which deals with the offense of selling a drug or medical preparation as a different one. This law aims to prevent the dangerous act of misrepresenting medicine, which can have severe consequences for public health and safety. Even though these drugs are as dangerous as psychotropic substances, the legal aspects dilute the nature of the offences giving benefits to the accused, a police officer added .