Chennai: Four police personnel attached to Triplicane police station has been transferred to the east zone police control room and an administrative inquiry has been initiated against them.
The police officers are facing action for allegedly threatening to register a false case against a ‘kuruvi’(transporter) and extorted money from him. The officers were identified as Ashok Kumar, Sunny Laydu, Ananthan and Rajesh of Triplicane law and order station.
The victim, Shahul Hameed, of Big street in Triplicane, works as a kuruvi, imports laptops, mobile phones from Malaysia and sells them at the market for a cheap price.
Knowing this, the four personnel forced the man to pay a bribe of Rs 2 lakh and they also threatened to file a false case against him if he fails to give the money.
However, the man gave them Rs 80,000 and a few days later he also lodged a complaint with the Triplicane police against the four officers.
A special team was formed and primary investigations confirmed that the police officers took bribe from the victim.
Meanwhile, city police commissioner A.K Vishwanathan on Tuesday transferred the four officers to East zone control room.
Speaking to DC, M.Karunanithi, a police officer who retired as the SP, expressed shock that policemen would be daring enough to demand bribes under the watch of city police commissioner AK Vishwanathan. “Moreover, a cop going against ethics is embarrassing to even to a retired police officer like me,” says the retired SP.
Asked why they were not directly suspended if corruption was that frowned upon, Karunanithi explains, “They are government staff after all. There is a procedure for everything and the senior officials have to stick to it. First, they will conduct an inquiry and then the offenders may be suspended.” However, a transfer to the Armed Reserve wing or a control room, in itself is usually punishment enough. Firstly, every police officer must understand that a transfer to these wings and the stigma that this carries is humongous. Also, these wings generally do not interact directly with the public on a regular basis like station officers do: they don’t have ‘opportunities’ to seek bribe.”
