Following a viral Twitter moment, two Bengaluru, India police officers were suspended after a 22-year-old intern accused them of planting cannabis in his bag and extorting 2,500 rupees (about $30 USD), Indian Express reports. After the thread went viral, authorities were prompted to launch an enquiry.
Vaibhav Patil was the author of the thread and made the allegations. Hailing from Himachal Pradesh in Northern India, he moved to Bengaluru six months ago, about 1,321 miles away.
According to Patil, he was returning from work at a private firm around 4 a.m. on January 11 when the incident occurred. He said he had booked a bike taxi when he was stopped by officers near the Ayyappa Swamy temple in HSR Layout. Patil said the officers approached him and began questioning him, according to a series of now-deleted tweets.
“One of the officers turned to me, and asked questions like where I was coming from, where I was going and what I was doing. I cooperated and answered. He then went ahead… I again cooperated and opened my office bag…” Patil said.
Patil said the officers searched his bag and planted a bag of cannabis, which they then used to extort money from him. Patil said that the cannabis was small enough to hide in the officer’s palm and even smaller to find out in low light.
“The other officer was behind me, talking about where I am from, what I do and other stuff. Suddenly, the officer took out something that looked like a little twig and asked ‘what’s this?’ I couldn’t make out what that was. He then asked, ‘You smoke ganja?’ I was shaken to my core as I am not into any of that stuff,” Patil said.
The officers then allegedly pushed Patil to admit he consumed cannabis.
“For something that was not mine nor I had any idea about its existence! I told them to have my medical test done because I knew I hadn’t done anything wrong or illegal, nor did I have any idea about this twig. They still kept harassing me and putting mental pressure on me to submit. I kept refusing,” Patil said.
He was allegedly taken by the officers on their two-wheeler to a police station, where he was told his arrest would win each officer a 15,000 rupee reward. When he didn’t give in and admit he had used cannabis, the officers allegedly told Patil they would take him to a hospital to administer a drug test. Though, he said the vehicle took him to a “shady place” where the officers threatened to arrest him again.
According to the report, the tone changed when officers found out Patil had 2,500 rupees on him. He was also allegedly asked to withdraw money from the bank; after showing officers his balance of around 4,000 rupees, they prompted him to take out the cash. He didn’t have his card on him and asked the officers if he could pay through Unified Payments Interface (UPI, an instant, real time payments system that allows instant transfers from one bank account to another). The officers refused and finally let him go, Patil alleged, and suggested that he shouldn’t be out at night.
“I am afraid to go out now, not because of criminals but police,” Patil said.
Patil works a 5 p.m. to 4 a.m. shift at the firm and earns 22,000 rupees each month as an intern. He said that it is “very difficult” for him to escape this trauma and that he didn’t want to raise a complaint because he didn’t want to deal with legal procedures that would lead to more stress “than mental peace after justice.”
“That’s why I didn’t approach police in the first place and just made the incident public so that people are aware of what’s happening,” he said.
South East Division Deputy Commissioner of Police C K Baba told the Indian Express that, given the amount of individuals that share stories on Twitter, the department can’t take tweets as complaints.
“Let the person visit the local police station and register a complaint, as per the law. However, we will try to get in touch with the boy and take further action,” he said.
According to the Hindustan Times, police were able to reach Patil and the enquiry is still ongoing as of January 13.
