A 28-year-old man who was recently in the news for accusing four policemen including an inspector of extortion was arrested on Wednesday by the police for robbing passengers on city buses. Mohammed Javed, 28, whose complaint of extortion against the police in January this year had resulted in the arrested of three policemen was nabbed by members of the public while picking pockets on a city bus on Wednesday morning and was handed over to the police. Two associates of Javed who filched a mobile phone from a passenger on a Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) bus managed to escape, police claimed. Javed was chased by passengers on a bus and Shivananda, a police constable attached to the Jayanagar traffic police station, and was caught at the junction of the RV Dental College around 10.30 am on Wednesday, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (South division) B S Lokesh Kumar said. He was later handed over to the custody of the JP Nagar police. The police claimed that Javed had confessed that his gang robbed a passenger on route number 215. “The gang specializes in stealing the mobile phones of bus passengers,” DCP Lokesh Kumar said. In the robbery on route 215 the gang targeted Yashodhara of Kanakanagar. Yashodhara who found his mobile phone missing noticed two persons getting down from the bus and running away raised an alarm. Passengers also noticed that Javed was fleeing the bus. They managed to catch him after a brief chase. DCP Lokesh Kumar said that the man nabbed for the robbery on the bus was the same person who had filed a robbery case against the inspector of the HAL police station R Rajesh and three constables earlier this year. The case lead to the arrest of three police constable while inspector R Rajesh has remained untraced for the past 10 months.Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had directed the police to file a criminal case against the policemen after learning of the complaint lodged against them by Javed. Javed was allegedly robbed by the policemen near the JP Nagar junction. They allegedly threatened to book him in a false case and demanded Rs 3 lakh to let him go. He was allegedly assaulted and threatened by the policemen. Javed paid the policemen the Rs three lakh demanded by them. When released from police custody Javed lodged a complaint regarding the extortion with the Deputy Commissioner of Police (south-east division) TD Pawar. The south east DCP brought the matter to the notice of the then police commissioner Raghavendra Auradkar leading to the suspension of the policemen.
