Kochi: The ‘moral policing fever’ has infected the actual police force too, it appears. A couple had a harrowing experience from a civil police officer who snatched Rs 5,000 from them in Kochi on December 10.
As per the First Information Report, the victim along with a woman friend was sitting at Marine Drive when the accused T.A. Ansari, who was a security guard of High Court judge Abraham Mathew, threatened to register a case against them and asked them to come with him to the police station.
The cop, a civil police officer on deputation from the Tripunithura AR camp, flashing his identity card, demanded money from the couple for saving them from the ‘immoral case.’ He claimed that he was on special duty in the wake of the ‘Kiss of Love’ incident and that his superior had demanded registering at least two cases a day.
The unruly cop settled for Rs 2,000 but when he saw five Rs 1,000 notes in the victim’s wallet, he snatched the money and fled. The victim and some vendors at the walkway chased him down. When one person got hold of the accused, he again showed his identity card and entered the High Court premises.
The police initially tried to hush up the matter but after the victim’s friend, who is also a cop, intervened, the police registered a case under section 392 of IPC (robbery) against Ansari.
Kochi City Police Commissioner M.P. Dinesh later intervened and placed him under suspension. But he is yet to be arrested. “I have asked the investigating officer to probe the matter without any bias,” Mr Dinesh said when asked about the delay in Ansari's arrest.
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