Lokayukta police raid two police stations, arrest two personnel

Lokayukta Police on Thursday raided two police stations - Devanahalli and Vyalikaval - in connection with two cases where police officials were found accepting bribes.

A sub-inspector and her assistant, a constable with Devanahalli Police, fled the scene when Lokayukta police raided the station while they were allegedly taking a bribe from the mother of a minor girl, victim of sexual assault, to file a charge-sheet against the accused. While Lokayukta sleuths caught the station writer, Amaresh, red-handed while accepting a bribe amount of ₹50,000, the prime accused, PSI Jagadevi, and constable Manjunath managed to flee.

The accused police personnel had allegedly demanded a bribe to file a chargesheet against a man booked for sexually assaulting the minor daughter of the victim. The accused man identified as Johnson, a habitual offender involved in multiple criminal cases used to visit the house of the victim and had sexually abused the minor girl. He was arrested, and jailed but came out on bail.

When there was no progress in the case, the victim’s mother approached the police seeking an update on the case. The accused Jagadevi reportedly told her that they had spent ₹25,000 for the arrest of the accused and demanded ₹1 lakh to file chargesheet against him. After negotiation, the accused finally settled the amount to ₹70,000. Unable to pay the bribe amount, the complainant approached Lokayukta and filed a complaint, which led to the raid and arrest of one of the accused, sources in the Lokayukta police said. 

In a similar case, the Lokayukta officials trapped the head constable of Vyalikawal Police Station red-handed on Thursday while accepting a bribe of ₹50,000 from a YouTuber. The accused Dayananda, was probing a case of controversy between two  Kannada activists aired on a YouTube channel. Dayananda reportedly summoned Raghavendra who put out the story on his YouTube channel and demanded ₹1 lakh to make him a witness in the case and threatened to book him as accused if he failed to pay the bribe. Raghavendra approached the police and filed a complaint following which the police trapped Dayananda and arrested him.