Belagavi: The State Human Rights Commission has served a notice to Belagavi police in connection with an alleged police atrocity against a well-known businessman from Belagavi, Santosh Padmannavar. The SHRC has sought a reply within six weeks.
Several senior police officers allegedly harassed Mr Padmannavar for several days a few months ago and allegedly demanded huge bribes from him. Mr Padmannavar recently met members of the commission and lodged a complaint, alleging that the police had filed several fake cases against him, including one of dacoity, only to extort money from him. He said that the police called him to police stations several times and demanded Rs 15 lakh as bribe to close cases against him.
He has collected several video and audio recordings of police officers demanding money from him and has said he would submit them to the commission as evidence in support of his claims.
Mr Padmannavar alleged that a few months ago, when he was out of station with his family, the police officials helped his maidservant to steal all valuables from his house. Later, when he returned home, he went to the maidservant's house and brought back several stolen valuables. The police, instead of helping him in the case, had filed a dacoity case against him for getting his stolen valuables back from the servant's house, he alleged.
Despite repeated requests, the police did not help him in getting the cases resolved but started harassing him by filing more cases against him, he alleged, urging the commission to help him avoid police atrocities. If Mr Padmannavar complaints were found true, it would be a gross violation of human rights by the police department, the commission said.
