CID extortion row takes caste hue

Bengaluru: The controversy over alleged extortion by Madhura Veena, superintendent of police attached to the anti-human trafficking unit of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), has taken a caste turn. The officer has alleged that she was being victimized because she belongs to the scheduled caste (SC) community.
Madhura Veena has written to home minister G Parameshwara, terming the episode a kid of 'vengeance' against her.
Days after the probe report was submitted to CID DG by DIG Sonia Narang, Madhura Veena had approached the SC/ST Commission and filed a complaint of harassment. The letter was sent in the first week of April and 10 days later, she submitted another one to the home minister. Madhura Veena and her team had allegedly extorted money from a four-star hotel in the city in March following a 'raid' to bust an alleged prostitution racket.
Sources said the home minister will hold a closed- door meeting with all CID officials, including those involved in the raid and those who probed the complaint, by Wednesday evening or Thursday noon.
In her three-page letter, a copy of which is with TOI, Madhura V eena, a Karnataka State Police Service officer awaiting promotion to IPS cadre, accused senior officials, including Sonia Narang, of harassing her. "The CID top brass is not happy with us; they are trying to tarnish our image," she said.
Narrating the hotel incident, she said on March 3, they raided room number 306 of the private hotel in Shivajinagar, following a tipoff that a prostitution racket was being run from its premises. "On finding no such activities, I called up Sonia Narang. She directed us to come back immediately and we did," she claimed, adding that events took a different turn and she and her team were accused of extorting money.
"On March 15, we were called for an inquiry. Nine of us were asked to write down what happened on March 3. It was like an exam. Sonia Narang made us sit at different places," she said. Claiming that she never demanded money, Madhura Veena said: "It's a concocted tale to damage my reputation."