Bengaluru: Eight police personnel, including a sub-inspector, have been sacked and taken into custody for allegedly robbing traders of their money on the promise of facilitating money exchange at a premium in Bengaluru.
They are accused in three separate cases, where a businessman and an advocate were robbed of Rs 35 lakh and Rs 22 lakh, respectively. A police constable was allegedly involved in the third case where another person was duped on the same promise.
“One of the sacked officials allegedly threatened a victim by brandishing his service revolver to take his old currency notes,” police officials say. In another case, victims were taken to the suburbs of the city, assaulted and robbed of their money.
The modus operandi of the sacked police personnel was to assure the susceptible traders that they would get their old currency exchanged for the new one on a commission. The traders, who were running out of time to get their money exchanged, trusted the men in khaki and handed over their money. The same officials never got back to them.
Additional Commissioner (West) K S R Charan Reddy said the tough action was warranted against the officials as these are “the protectors of the law who had turned into criminals”.
“We want to send the message that such actions cannot be tolerated. There was a sense of fear among victims too, so we cannot give details about their businesses or transactions,” Reddy told the media on Thursday.
The dismissal of policemen was based on the complaints victims had lodged in the last week of November and the first week of December after a thorough review by the home department of the Chief Minister, who had instructed police top brass to follow zero tolerance in such cases.
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