Engineer’s wife demands food items in Bengaluru posing as police officer, arrested

According to the police, Nethravathi’s false identity was exposed after she went to a pushcart eatery demanding ‘bhajji’ (a snack) on January 5 and asked the owner, Salman, to parcel up a few varieties of bondas and bhajjis.

“When Salman asked her to pay the bill that amounted to around Rs 100, she started abusing him and threatened to close down his shop if he demanded money. As Salman was confronting ‘the woman police officer’ for the fourth time, he grew suspicious and rang up the emergency number ‘112’. Nethravathi managed to flee the place,” an officer said.

The police registered a case for extortion and cheating, based on a complaint filed by Salman. They nabbed Nethravathi on Saturday after monitoring the CCTV footage and vehicle number of the suspect.

“Prima facie it has been discovered that Nethravathi has been doing it for nearly a month in the area and shopkeepers gave it out of fear. In some places, she has had food and in many places she has taken parcels without paying. We do not know why she did it despite coming from a financially well-settled family,” said the officer.

According to the police, after she was arrested many vendors in the vicinity informed the officials that she used to come to their place on a scooter dressed up as a police officer and demanded eatables.