Karnataka - Bangalore

Six CCB men held

BANGALORE: The image of the Bangalore police has again taken a beating with the Lokayukta police on Thursday arresting six policemen attached to the Central Crime Branch (CCB) who allegedly threatened to book the owner of a serviced apartment on the charge of running a brothel and demanded a bribe of Rs. 1 lakh from him.

The arrests come in the wake of revelations on Wednesday of a nexus between the police and land mafia following the arrest of an alleged land grabber, JCB Narayana.

According to Additional Director-General of Police (Lokayukta) R.K. Datta, the CCB men approached Shiva Kumar, who runs a serviced apartment in the upmarket Koramangala, and threatened to book a prostitution abetment case against him if he failed to pay them Rs. 1 lakh.

After negotiations, the policemen brought down the amount to Rs. 40,000 and collected an advance of Rs. 25,000 from Mr. Shiva Kumar on January 11.

As the latter did not want to fall prey to extortion, he approached the Lokayukta police who, on Tuesday, arrested a man, while he was accepting Rs. 15,000 from Shiva Kumar. On interrogation, Deepak confessed that he had come there to collect the money on behalf of the CCB personnel.

The Lokayukta police on Thursday arrested Sub-Inspector Nagesh, assistant sub-inspector Narayana Murthy, head constable Venkatesh and constables Venkatesh, Appaji and Rangaswamy, all working in the Women and Narcotics Wing of the CCB.

The six were booked for offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act and produced before the jurisdictional Sessions court.

Reacting to the arrest, Bangalore’s Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Gopal B.Hosur said action would be taken against the accused policemen once the Lokayukta submits the report to the Commissioner of Police.

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