Lessons from the story about Bengaluru Techie being extorted by rogue cops - Use social media judiciously to help those in need

Lessons from the story about Bangalore Techie being extorted - Let’s use social media judiciously to help those in need

I was fascinated to see a thread of complaint posted by @vpatilav, a 22 year old intern from Himachal Pradesh who tweeted about being extorted by a couple of cops. His Twitter thread explained how he was illegally detained and extorted by cops while returning home after a late-night shift.

The two cops on night duty allegedly planted a small twig of ganja (marijuana) in the youth’s bag and threatened to implicate him in a drug related case. They asked for cash in return for ‘letting him go.’ The techie paid them about Rs 2,500 before he could walk away.



The distraught techie took to social media the next day and the story blew up on Reddit (thread) and elsewhere. 

What was intriguing was that @vpatilav, abruptly deleted the thread saying “Police was looking into the matter.” This led to speculation that he was being harassed for “falsely” accusing cops.

Turns out, @vpatilav was right. The Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) CK Baba ordered an internal inquiry that has now implicated the two rouge policemen. Two police constables of Bengaluru’s Bendepalya police station were suspended on Monday for allegedly harassing the young man.

CK Baba, deputy commissioner of police, Bengaluru (South) told Hindustan Times, “A suspension order has been issued to two constables from Bendepalya police station. After the tweets and based on Vaibhav’s complaint, we initiated an enquiry against two cops and now they are removed from their duties.”

Doubters on social media posted a Mea Culpa

 

Lesson here is simple: If you are falsely accused of a crime or being extorted by bad cops, you have legal recourse. You should also gather all the facts and seek help of those in social media.

We the Digirati are watching and engaging Social Media



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