A man took to Reddit to share his horrifying experience of alleged harassment, assault, and extortion – all at the hands of Bengaluru cops at night. The man alleges that he and his friend were forced to say that they were gay to be let go by the cops. The incident reportedly took place in North Bengaluru at around 2 AM on July 30.
The Redditor, who goes by “Prudent-Letterhead40” online, shared the petrifying experience that left him “disgusted and disturbed” on the platform’s “Bangalore” community some 14 hours ago.
‘Forced to say we’re gay to be let go’
“Harassed, assaulted & extorted by cops at night — we were forced to say we’re gay to be let go (North Bangalore),” read the title of the post under the “law and order” tag.
The man narrated that he and his friend had stepped out late at night for a walk, as he was feeling restless. They found a quiet spot to talk. Within minutes, two police officers approached them. They were on a bike.
“They asked us what we were doing, searched us, checked our phones and pockets. No drugs, no alcohol, nothing suspicious — but they refused to believe we were just out for air,” the man claimed.
He added that the cops began accusing them of being a gay couple and suggested that was why they were out late at night. “When we denied it, they started hitting us with a baton and said if we ‘confessed’ to being gay, they’d let us go. Otherwise, they’d take us to the station and call our parents,” the man added.
The man claims that both of them, out of fear and to escape the situation they were in, admitted to being gay. “Out of fear, we said, ‘Okay, we’re gay’ just to get out of the situation,” the post further mentions.
Demanded Rs 50,000 bribe
While this sort of “satisfied the ego of the cops”, their ordeal didn’t end there. The Redditor claimed that the officers first demanded Rs 5,000 as a “fine”, then took them to the police station, where more officers joined in – eight as per the man.
There, the cops quoted Rs 50,000 to let them go. They even threatened to book them under IPC 377, for which they would need Rs 1 lakh for bail. The student said that the cops finally settled on Rs 15,000.
“They took us to a secluded spot first, demanded Rs 5,000 as a ‘fine,’ and then drove us to the police station. There, other officers joined in, threatened to book us under IPC 377, said we’d be taken to court the next morning and would have to post Rs 1 lakh bail. They kept reducing the bribe, first Rs 50k, then Rs 25k, then Rs 20k, and finally settled on Rs 15,000, saying we wouldn’t be released without paying,” the man said in his post.
Since one of them promised to arrange Rs 7,500, he had to call up his friend for the money. “They wouldn’t take UPI, of course, so I was escorted by one of the cops to a petrol bunk far from the station to withdraw and convert the money to cash, all while my friend was kept at the station, phone confiscated, made to sit on the floor and insulted.”
The man ended his post by calling for accountability, not vengeance. He said, “This experience has left me disgusted and disturbed. The very people hired to protect us used fear, homophobia, assault, and extortion to make money off of innocent students out for a walk.”
“Amruthahalli police station night shift, all of them are dirty,” the OP mentioned in the comments section when Redditors asked him to name the police station. He further said that the officers snatched their keys and phones, apparently to “scare” him.
How did Reddit users respond to this?
Many Reddit users demanded that the original poster name and shame the cops involved, along with their police station.
When one Internet user asked, “Could you offer any evidence of this dacoity by police? Which police station limit did this happen at?” the OP responded with: “That’s the problem, they snatched scooty keys and phone before we could do anything.”
“File a complaint at the police station. I have heard of police getting fired for such issues,” suggested one individual.
Another added, “What’s up with so many similar cases? Is roaming around at night in India illegal? A few years ago, my friends and I were extorted around 3-4k in Chennai for hanging out at the beach at night, it was probably 10:45 pm.”