Bengaluru Police: Charge Apartment Organization With Operating Their Own “Justice System”; Unreported Drug Use and Sexual Assault

Bengaluru Police: After an unlawful parallel judicial system including sexual assault and the “drug penalty” that was run by a private security company and an apartment association in Bengaluru was exposed, a thorough investigation was started.

The Kumbalgodu police filed a suo motu criminal prosecution against Tyco Security and the Provident Sunworth Apartment Association.

They were charged in the FIR with conducting internal investigations and establishing and executing unapproved penal regulations, such as fining citizens who were allegedly engaged in illegal activity.

Residents, especially students, were implicated in a variety of crimes, including drug use, partying, and sexual assault, according to an NDTV investigation.

The apartment body circumvented the law by conducting internal interrogations and imposing financial fines rather than reporting the instances to the police. This allowed those accused of heinous crimes to get away with it. These steps were carried out with assistance from the apartment’s security service.

“When we received information about what was happening, we decided to register a case against them for attempting to protect those involved in crimes against women, theft and drug-related offences,” said Anitha B. Haddannavar, Deputy Commissioner of Police, South West Division, according to the article.

According to her, penalties of up to Rs 25,000 were collected for using illicit substances on the property. “The police should have been notified of such offenses. Instead, they enforced their own regulations in an attempt to deal with them internally. The group even drafted its own rules that included the imposition of penalties. Fines of up to Rs 25,000 were collected for the usage of illicit narcotics in only the last few months,” she said.

Sections 211, 238, 239, 3(5), and 3(6) of the legislation, as well as pertinent clauses of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985, have been used to register the case.

The police are now conducting a thorough investigation into the situation and have emphasized that private groups lack the legal authority to take any action about criminal offenses other than informing the authorities.