Taking money from two poor petitioners towards travel expenses to trace their 33-year-old son proved costly for two police personnel as they were placed under suspension within hours after the High Court of Karnataka on Tuesday pointed out that money was collected in violation of the court’s earlier direction.
A Division Bench comprising Justice K.N. Phaneendra and Justice H.B. Prabhakara Sastry, which was hearing a habeas corpus petition filed by Balamma and her husband, Mani, took serious exception to the conduct of the police personnel in collecting money though the court had earlier specifically asked the police not to collect money from petitioners, considering their financial condition, towards expenses to be incurred to trace their son.
During the hearing, Hamsaveni, a daughter of the petitioners, pointed out to the court that an Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) of Police attached to Cottonpet police station had collected ₹3,000 from them to go to Kerala to search her brother Senthil Kumar, 33. She also alleged that a police constable, Fakeerappa, came to their house on Monday night and warned them of dire consequences if they said anything adverse against the police before the court. She identified Fakeerappa, who was present in the court hall.
Following this, the Bench directed the Deputy Commissioner of Police (West Division) to appear before the court to explain the conduct of the police. In the afternoon, the DCP (West Division) Ravi D. Channannavar appeared before the Bench and filed an affidavit stating that ASI Govindappa K.T. and constable Monnappa had been placed under suspension, pending inquiry, in this connection. Meanwhile, Senthil Kumar voluntarily appeared before the court and said he was not in illegal detention of any person and that he had left his parents’ house in 2009 when he was in his final semester of engineering course as his father, who was allegedly an alcoholic, was torturing him. He said he was working in a hotel in Bengaluru and came to know about the case through one of his friends, and he does not wish to go back to his parents. While dismissing the petition, the court also asked the DCP to examine the allegation made against Fakeerappa.