BENGALURU: A Good Samaritan, who tried to rescue a middle-aged inebriated man who had passed out on the middle of a road in the night, landed in trouble after the police assaulted and verbally abused him on Thursday.
The policemen with the Hoysala night patrolling team, attached to Jivan Bimanagar police station, not only detained the techie, suspecting him of robbing from the passed out man, but also beat him up black and blue for arguing with the police, when he tried to explain to them that his intention was only to help the middle age man and pull him out of danger as he could have been run over by vehicles as there were no streetlights on the road. The techie was allowed to go home only after the night beat cops extorted Rs 200 from him.
It all started when A. Alagarasan, 27, was walking back home in Thippasandra after watching a night show of a recently released Tamil movie “Thanioruvan’ at Innovative Multiplex in Marathahalli. His friend Pradeep, who accompanied Alagarasan to the movie, had dropped him on his bike near Thippasandra. It was around 1.30 am when Alagarasan, who was walking on the dimly lit road near the BEML Gate circle, noticed the middle-aged man lying in the middle of the road. A concerned Alagarsan dragged the man to the footpath to avoid the man being run over by vehicles.
Alagarasan told Deccan Chronicle that after he dragged the drunk man to safety, he was walking by, only to be stopped by a Hoysala jeep. Two policemen in the jeep started questioning him. “They (the cops) accused me of robbing the passed out man and started abusing me in filthy language. As I do not understand the local language, I tried to explain to them in English and broken Hindi that I was only trying to help the man and pull him to safety as he could have been run over by vehicles on the dark stretch of the road. One of the cops slapped me repeatedly and asked me to get inside the jeep,” said Alagarasan.
“I got scared and got into the jeep. The two policemen and the driver took me along with them wherever they went on their night rounds. On the way, they again slapped me and asked me to tell the truth,” Alagarasan said.
“Around 3 am, they brought me to Jivan Bimanagar police station and made me sit there. By that time, my friend Pradeep had come to the police station and spoke with the officers and vouched for me. Pradeep also gave the cops both our identities and other personal information. He explained to the policemen that they had mistaken me to be a robber. The cops were not ready to listen and let me go only after taking Rs 200 from me. They also made me sign a sheet of paper, which had something written in Kannada,” said Alagarasan.
Becoming wiser learning from the incident, he said, “From now on, I will never help anyone in distress. I am scared that our policemen will teach me a ‘lesson’ for doing it.” Alagarasan is a software engineer working with a reputed multinational IT firm in Electronic City, which deals with aerospace products and technology. He is a native of Dharmapuri in Tamil Nadu and has been a resident of Bengaluru since 2010.
We didn’t beat him: Police
Jivan Bhimanagar police confirmed the incident, but refused to divulge the names and details of the Assistant Sub-Inspector and the driver of the Hoysala jeep. “We have filed a petty case against a man who dragged a drunk man on the road to the footpath. A few people told the Hoysala police that Alagarasan was checking the drunken man’s pockets and we questioned him. No police officers beat him, but they only chided him,” said an officer from the police station.
