Karnataka cops held in Kerala for accepting bribe from cheating case accused

Four police personnel from Karnataka were taken into custody by their Kerala counterparts here for allegedly accepting bribe from an accused in a cheating case registered in the neighbouring state.

An inspector and three subordinate officers, attached to the Whitefield Police Station in Karnataka, were held here and nearly Rs 4 lakh cash, suspected to have been accepted as a bribe, were recovered from them on Wednesday, police said.

The Karnataka policemen arrived in the state recently in connection with the investigation of a cheating case of Rs 26 lakh, involving four people from Kerala, they said.

Two of the accused in the case hail from Malappuram while other two were reportedly from Palluruthi here.

A senior police officer told PTI that the Karnataka policemen took two of the accused in the case into their custody from Malappuram the other day and allegedly demanded Rs three lakh rupees as bribe after calling one of the accused’s relatives over phone.

The accused was released after taking the money and making him sign on some papers, he said.

Similarly, they also allegedly demanded and accepted around Rs one lakh from another accused as bribe, the officer said.

”They were waiting for the rest of the amount when we nabbed them from Athani near Nedumbassery here based on a tip-off. We recovered Rs 3.95 lakh in cash from their possession,” he added.

The case was registered under various sections of IPC but their arrest was yet to be recorded. Sources said the Kerala police sought a legal opinion on the recording of the arrest of the cops from the neighbouring state.