Mumbai: Man claims cops took bribe but, returned money after he tweeted police

A media professional alleged that he was beaten, abused and extorted by two police constables at Mira Road, on Sunday night. The victim claimed that he was drinking alcohol in a car with his friends and instead of taking legal action, the police slapped him and took a bribe. Within a few hours after the victim tweeted the police, the officers, reportedly, returned the bribe money to him, he said.

Roshan Kokane, a resident of Mira Road tweeted on Sunday night, "@MumbaiPolice your havaldar slapped me and abused me for drinking a pint of beer in the car. I don't even want to tell you about the trauma I am going through. he also heckled a couple hugging and slapped the boy and made sleazy comments on the girl."

"Is this why you are putting police out? To heckle with decent people and ask for a bribe? He took 3k from us. Is this even fair? He took our phones so we cannot record. Could he not have taken me to the police station and filed an FIR respectfully? he started checking my car randomly without a warrant and said that he will file false cases against us," Kokane's another tweet read.

Speaking to DNA, Kokane said, "I was in a car with two of my male friends at Mira Road and was having beer when two police constables approached us at around 10.30 pm. They first checked our car and then started hurling abuses. If something was wrong, they could have taken us to the police station and then, taken legal action. They took Rs 3,000 as a bribe and manhandled us. The person did not show us an ID card but, did check our car."

After tweeting the police, he received a call from the police control room and was directed to visit the Kashimira Police Station, Kokane said. "At the police station we were asked to identify the policemen who took the bribe but, the culprits were not there. One of the officers at the police station then took me to a corner and gave me Rs 3,000 and asked me to leave. I left the police station at around 2 am," Kokane added.

"Kokane was drunk at the time of the incident. At the police station, we had asked him to identify the policemen who sought a bribe from him, but he could not identify anyone. If he alleges that his bribe money was returned by one of our officers, then, we will inquire into this," senior police inspector Vaibhav Shingare from the Kashimira Police Station said.

BROUGHT TO SHAME

The victim claimed that he was drinking alcohol in a car with his friends and instead of taking legal action, the police slapped him and took a bribe. After tweeting the police, his money was returned