Stating that maze of facts involved in a criminal case registered against a police inspector “prima facie depicts a crime thriller”, the High Court of Karnataka said that an investigation is needed to unearth the details while dismissing the petition filed by the accused police inspector, who had challenged the First Information Report (FIR) lodged by the Police Department.
Justice M. Nagaprasanna passed the order while dismissing the petition filed by accused police inspector Shankar Naik G.K., 40, who was earlier working in Byatarayanapura police station and now posted at Bidadi police station.
The beginning
The events unfolded with the theft of ₹75 lakh from a businessman Hareesh near Hoskote in September 2022, as his driver Santosh fled with the car and the money after dropping Mr. Hareesh near his cousin’s house.
As the local police did not respond to his complaint, Mr. Hareesh contacted a middleman, Loknath Singh, who assured to get help through Mr. Naik, who allegedly demanded ₹20 lakh initially.
It was alleged that Mr. Naik created a false complaint to show that theft of ₹75 lakh had occurred in his jurisdiction, and forced the complainant’s partner, John, to sign the complaint and projected it as the complaint lodged by Mr. Hareesh, who was away in Andhra Pradesh.
Demanded bribe
Mr. Naik, after recovery of stolen money, allegedly demanded half of the recovered amount through Mr. Singh but Mr. Hareesh refused to pay the amount. Following this, Mr. Naik is said to have informed the Income Tax Department about recovery of money and falsely projected it as generated from real estate transaction by Mr. Hareesh.
However, Mr. Hareesh narrated the actual turn of events in his statement recorded before the jurisdictional magistrate.
Interestingly, even though the entire stolen money was recovered in mid October 2022, Mr. Naik kept it in his personal custody till the end of February 2023, even though he was transferred to Anekal police station in January 2023. He had failed to deposit the money with the treasury despite four notices issued by his higher officers, and he did not hand over the charge to the new police inspector till the end of February 2023.
Changed currency notes
However, when the Income-Tax authorities approached the jurisdictional court to take custody of the money, Mr. Naik brought it to Byatarayanapura police station and left it on the table before leaving the station, which was recorded in the CCTV system.
Curiously, as per the mahazar, the cash stolen from Mr. Harish was currency notes of ₹500 denomination drawn from a private bank, and the money deposited by Mr. Naik were of different denominations of ₹100, ₹200, ₹500, and ₹2,000 drawn from public sector banks.
Following these developments, an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) was asked to hold an enquiry against Mr. Naik and he was exonerated in the enquiry. However, a higher officer ordered further enquiry against Mr. Naik through another ACP, who gave report both against Mr. Naik and the earlier ACP. Following the outcome of second enquiry, disciplinary action was initiated against the ACP who gave clean chit to Mr. Naik, and the FIR was lodged against Mr. Naik and Mr. Singh.
The court said investigation is needed as there are multiple allegations, like falsifying the complaint, keeping the recovered money in his personal custody, and tampering with recovered currency notes by changing them against the accused police inspector.
Published - August 14, 2024 10:56 pm IST
