Director-General and Inspector-General of Police Praveen Sood has suspended from service two police officials on charges of “misconduct and dereliction of duty” in a case in which a car seized by the police has reportedly been sold.
Mr. Sood has suspended Economic and Narcotic Crime (ENC) Wing Inspector K.K. Ramakrishna and Sub-Inspector Kabalraj, who was earlier posted in the city and who is now at the District Crime Record Bureau, Chikkamagaluru, following preliminary report by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) that is inquiring into the alleged “misconduct and dereliction of duty” by city police personnel.
The police said a woman filed a complaint of cheating with the ENC police station, Mangaluru on October 16,2020, accusing proprietors of Eliya Construction and Builders Private Limited, Kadaba, of cheating her of ₹4.5 lakh. Later the Central Crime Branch police seized three high-end cars related to the owners of the company when they said they did not have money to return to the complainant.
Later media reports said that one of the three cars which had been seized had been sold while in police custody.” The media reports alleged that CCB personnel had colluded with some police officials in “selling one of the seized cars” for enabling the accused in the cheating case to return the cheated amount to the complainant.
Following the media reports, Additional Director-General of Police (Law and Order) Pratap Reddy sought a report from Police Commissioner N. Shashi Kumar. Based on the findings of the report of the preliminary inquiry by Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Vinay Gaonker, Mr. Kumar sent a report to Mr. Reddy, who asked the CID to conduct an inquiry.
