In an apparent case of mistaken identity, a police sub-inspector and his team were beaten up by residents of Kodigenabele in Malur town when they went to pick up a suspect in a robbery case.
Varthur Police Sub-Inspector Raghu fired a few rounds in the air to stall the attack and then shot the suspect in the leg to stop him escaping.
According to the police, Raghu had detained one Bellavi Raja in connection with a robbery. Based on his interrogation, a police team led by Raghu along with constables Muniraju, Manjunath and Narasimhamurthy went to Kodeginabele to pick up Yallappa, a cook, and one Nagaraj, both suspected associates of Raja.
Raghu and his team went in plainclothes to Yallappa’s house on Monday night, and tried to pick him up on the pretext of giving a cooking contract for an event.
Things got a bit complicated when Yallappa raised an alarm thinking that the police team in plainclothes was in fact a group of kidnappers.
At this, residents of Kodigenabele stormed into the house and beat up the policemen black and blue using clubs and stones.
Nagaraj escaped in the melee.
Seeing matters had got out of hand, the sub-inspector opened fire with his service pistol, injuring Yallappa. This stopped him fleeing and immediately discouraged the mob from continuing their attack. Raghu later revealed the identity of the team and said they wanted to question Yallappa. By then, Malur police too reached the spot.
Kodigenabele residents defended their action saying the visitors had not told them they were the police.
