The Gujarat High Court on Tuesday took suo motu cognizance of an incident where two traffic policemen and a Traffic Brigade (TRB) jawan in Ahmedabad extorted money from a couple who were travelling late at night.
A Bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Aniruddha P Mayee sought an action taken report from the Police Commissioner after taking note of a news report carried by Ahmedabad Mirror on Monday.
“We call upon the city police chief to submit an action taken report in the matter where two traffic constables and a TRB jawan reported to have committed an act of extortion of ₹60,000 from a couple who were travelling in the city in a cab during night hours,” the Court said.
The action taken report is to be submitted along with an affidavit of a gazetted officer from the office of the Ahmedabad Police Commissioner by the next date of hearing on September 11.
The Bench noted that as per the news report, the couple and their infant child was stopped by the two traffic policemen and the TRB jawan while travelling by cab at around 1 AM, on returning from a vacation in Thailand. The police personnel have been identified and arrested.
“The newspaper report shows some disturbing facts that traffic police constables forcibly entered into the cab during a checking drive and threatened the couple to be booked for violation of Police Commissioner’s notification for travelling late at night,” it said.
According to the report, the cops took “the terrified couple to an isolated spot and demanded Rs 2 lakh to let them off but eventually agreed to settle for Rs 60,000.” It further said that the cops “not only sat in the cab of the couple but also prevented the woman from breastfeeding her 1-year-old son.”
The couple was reportedly stopped as part of the city police’s vehicle checking drives at night following the Jaguar crash incident on Iskcon Flyover.