Bengaluru: Even being patriotic can land you in trouble! Owner of a two-wheeler showroom in Hebbal was detained by the police for hours after a man, who claimed to be the president of the State Media Council, alleged that the Tricolour on top of the showroom that was hoisted on Independence Day had not been brought down even after five days on August 20.
While the owner’s son was detained for over seven hours on Thursday night, the owner was detained for five hours on Friday. The owner said that the alleged media council president, identified as R. Venkatesh, also tried to extort money from the father-son duo threatening them with legal action.
Rahul S. Bhojanna (23), son of Shekhar Bhojanna, residents of Shanti Nagar was taken to the Hebbal police station on Thursday around 5 pm after Venkatesh spotted the Tricolour on their four-storeyed building in Hebbal.
Rahul said that Venkatesh clicked a few pictures of the flag on his phone and walked into the showroom. He demanded that the flag be removed as the Independence Day was over, and lambasted the owner and his son for showing disrespect to the flag.
“We did not know who hoisted the flag on our building. When Venkatesh told us that it was wrong, we immediately removed the flag. But he walked up to the police station, which is around 500 metres from our building, and brought the police along with him. The police dragged me to the police station,” Rahul told Deccan Chronicle.
Rahul was made to sit in the police station from 5 pm till 12.30 am without any cops attending to him. “In the meantime, Venkatesh called me up and said that the crime that I committed was nonbailable and it could attract Rs 2 lakh fine and a three-year jail term. Venkatesh told me that if I paid him Rs 50,000, he would drop the complaint,” Rahul said. But Rahul refused to pay, and was made to languish in the police station.
As the police were letting Rahul go, they asked him to come back early next day. “On Friday, my father went to the police station to inquire about the incident and he was made to sit from 10 am till 3 pm," Rahul said. “I and my uncle went to the police commissioner’s office and met some senior officers. Only then did the Hebbal police let my father go, but not before issuing us a notice, asking us to go before the police for an inquiry after the BBMP elections are over."
