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Lustful cops seek sex as bribe
The Commission to Investigate Bribery or Corruption has been forced to cope with a new vice in the Police – officers and men seeking sexual favours instead of simply demanding bribes alone.
One of the latest detections comes from Pulasthigama in the Polonnaruwa District. When a 23-year-old woman was assaulted by her husband, she thought the Police would give her redress.
She walked into the Minor Offences Division to complain. There the officer in charge summoned her husband. In the presence of the wife he was given a severe warning to stop assaulting his wife. The duo was advised to live amicably.
But, three weeks later she returned to the same police station with the same complaint and was advised by the OIC of the Minor Branch section that she should consider filing a divorce case.
However, late last month the woman returned for a third time complaining that she had problems with her husband.
This time the OIC offered to assist her, but at a price – to personally meet him in a hotel room where he would provide her ‘advice’ on leading a ‘peaceful’ family life. In addition he wanted her to pay him Rs. 10,000 for the ‘advice’.
He wanted her to come on her own to a bus stand in Minneriya around 7.00 p.m. The woman who believed that the police officer was trying to have a sexual relationship with her had lodged a complaint with the Bribery Commission.
Accordingly the Bribery Commission had initiated moves to arrest the officer. It provided a woman police constable in civvies to accompany the 23-year-old woman.
The OIC of the Minor Offences Section arrived on a motorcycle at the bus stand, but he found that the woman was accompanied by another female who was introduced as a ‘friend’.
The police officer had advised the woman to send off the female by paying her three-wheeler fare. The woman had offered Rs. 10,000 she had brought along with her, but the officer refused to accept the money saying he wanted to meet her personally.
The police officer advised her to return to the Hingurkgoda bus stand the following day, but insisted that she should come on her own and that he was not interested in the money. On the following day she returned on her own and was advised to follow his motorcycle in a three-wheeler to a hotel located in the same area.
At the hotel he accompanied the woman to a room, locked her in it and returned to the reception. He came back to the room after collecting two bottles of water. After he returned to the room and spent about five minutes, he heard a knock on the door. He opened the door and found policemen in civvies from the Bribery Commission.
The police officer has been produced before the Colombo Chief Magistrate Rashmi Singappuli and remanded until next Tuesday. The allegations he faces are seeking a sexual bribe and seeking a financial bribe.
In a similar case early this month a Police Sergeant was arrested for seeking a sex as a bribe to resolve a fraud case filed against her paramour.
The 50-year-old woman had visited the Eppawala police station which had filed charges against her paramour for running an illegal pyramid scheme of promising people to double their investments by investing in the scheme.
Police sergeant Susil Ratnayaka had promised the woman to get her paramour released from the case and in turn wanted the woman to spend the day with him in a hotel.
The woman was told to come to Thalawa and visit a hotel located a kilometer away where he would meet her.The woman had complained to the Bribery Commission. A team in civvies which followed the three-wheeler arrested the police sergeant while he was in the room with the woman.
The suspect was produced before Colombo Chief Magistrate Rashmi Singappuli and remanded until October 30.
An official with the Bribery Commission said during the investigations it was revealed that there were several instances where police officers had brought women to the two hotels, but since there were no previous complaints action could not be taken against them.
He said that in many of the cases people did not make complaints about police seeking sex as a bribe as they were embarrassed or believed that there was no alternative in getting matters attended to.
National Police Commission Chairman Senaka Walgampaya said there were complaints against police officers seeking sex as bribes and investigations were underway, but he gave no further details.
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