BENGALURU: The special court for Prevention of Corruption Act cases has denied anticipatory bail to four police officials attached with Whitefield CEN Crime police station.
Inspector Renuka JM, 37, and her subordinates — sub-inspector Naveen Kumar, 32, assistant sub-inspector Ganesh N, 37, and constable Hemanth Kumar — are facing charges of accepting Rs 5 lakh bribe from Sudeep VV, an interior designer and accused in a cheating case. The officials are also facing charges of demanding more bribe from Sudeep to ensure he didn’t face arrest.
Sudeep had recorded a mobile call in which one of the accused cops allegedly demanded the bribe and filed a complaint with ACB on July 20. “The petitioners appear to have engaged in extracting money from the informant (Sudeep) and if this is allowed to happen, people will lose faith in police,” judge Lakshminarayana Bhat K, special judge (PC Act), stated on August 9.
Hemanth and Ganesh had contended that they did not demand or accept any bribe. The duo admitted that they had brought Sudeep to the station in a cheating case but said the same cannot be termed illegal.
Renuka argued that she had taken charge as inspector of Whitefield CEN crime police station on July 14 and the cheating case against Sudeep was registered on July 6 and she was not aware of the facts of the case.
The prosecution said there was evidence that the suspects demanded Rs 10 lakh as illegal gratification not to arrest Sudeep in a case registered against him and had collected Rs 5 lakh from him already. Renuka, Naveen, Ganesh and Hemanth were suspended on July 29.
