A case has been registered against the Karnataka police team for allegedly holding two people hostage and extorting an amount of Rs 4 lakh from them, by threatening to name them co-accused in a crypto currency case.
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Four police personnel from Karnataka were taken into custody by the Kalamassery police in Kerala on Wednesday, August 2, for allegedly extorting money from suspects. The accused police personnel who came to Kerala to investigate a crypto currency case, allegedly threatened to frame two suspects in the case. As per the First Information Report (FIR), the four-member police team from Bengaluru held complainant Akhil Alby and his friend Nikhil hostage on Tuesday, August 1, and extorted approximately Rs 4 lakh from them by threatening to name them as co-accused in the case. “One of the accused is a police inspector,” Kalamassery Station House Officer (SHO) Vibin Das told TNM. Bengaluru police said the four accused officers have not been arrested, and that they were released with a notice after enquiry.
The accused police personnel were identified as Whitefield CEN (Cyber, Economic offences, and Narcotics) police inspector Shivaprakash, head constables Vijayakumar and Shivanna, and police constable Sandesh. They have been charged under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement), 384 (punishment for extortion), 385 (putting person in fear of injury in order to commit extortion), and 34 (Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention).
As per a statement issued by the Karnataka police, the four-member team had travelled to Kerala in connection with a case registered at the Whitefield CEN police station on June 14. The complainant in that case, Chandaka Srikanth, had lost Rs 26 lakh in an alleged case of job fraud. A subsequent investigation had reportedly led the team to a person named Naushad in Kerala, in search of whom they set out to the neighbouring state.
The Whitefield team picked up Naushad from Vengara in Kerala on August 1, following which two other suspects — Akhil and Nikhil from Ernakulam — were also taken into custody. The officers had also informed the local Palluruthi police station of the arrest of the three suspects.
On Wednesday, however, the Kochi Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) directed the Kalamassery SHO to intercept the Karnataka team’s car based on information of alleged extortion. The SHO found the car parked on the roadside, and spotted the four officers and three suspects standing closeby under suspicious circumstances. On inspection, he found an amount of Rs 3,95,000 from the car, for which the Bengaluru officers were unable to give a satisfactory explanation. Akhil, meanwhile, told the Kalamassery police that they were being threatened. Subsequently, the police took the Karnataka police team into custody and seized the car.
A group of senior police officers from Karnataka arrived in Ernakulam on Thursday to discuss the proceedings of the case with Kochi DCP S Sasidharan. The Kerala police had sought legal advice on whether an arrest should be officially recorded or the accused personnel should be handed over to Karnataka instead.
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