Bengaluru: On March 3 around noon, CID superintendent of police M L Madhura Veena, accompanied by 11 personnel including 2 DySPs, had raided Hotel Orchid Ramada, a four-star facility here, alleging that two young women had booked room no. 306 online for the purpose of sex trade.
On raiding and finding no evidence, the police team is said to have demanded a bribe of Rs 5 lakh from the management. The haggling went on till 5-30 pm.
The SP also called up CID DIG Sonia Narang to inform her of the ‘raid’. Narang reportedly asked them to leave the place immediately if there was no evidence.
Finally the SP left with other, leaving behind two DySPs to continue the ‘bargaining’. The hotel, although they were faultless, reportedly agreed on Rs 50,000, but the two officers, continuing their discussions in another room, would not settle for it since the demand had come from the ‘SP level’.
In order to keep their image, the hotel management settled for Rs 2 lakh and the cops left the premises with the amount around 8-45 pm.
The hotel management filed a complaint with CID director general of police Kishore Chandra, who in turn asked CID DIG Sonia Narang to hold an inquiry. Based on the CCTV footage, officers’ diaries, withdrawal of Rs 2 lakh from the bank for the purpose, she found enough evidence supporting the bribe charge.
The inquiry also revealed the possibility of similar raids being conducted on some other hotels with a view to extortion.
Since the CID cannot take action on the basis of Narang’s report, Kishore Chandra has forwarded the matter to the state police chief, Om Prakash.
In the meantime, as soon as Narang began the probe, Madhura Veena is said to have filed a complaint of harassment to the Scheduled Castes and Tribes Commission against Sonia Narang. She has alleged that she was being targeted only for being a Dalit.
The complaint was filed, according to informed sources, about 20 days ago. The Commission has reportedly taken up the matter.
In mid-2015, Madhura raised a storm by using derogatory language against unnamed persons in her Facebook account. Soon thereafter the comments were reportedly deleted.
