Bhubaneswar: Police stations in the Capital have turned into ‘hunting grounds’ for middlemen who make a handsome amount of money from the victims coming to the stations in pursuit of justice. Police personnel are also in cahoots with middlemen to fetch money indirectly from unsuspecting complainants. Such middlemen can be seen at every police station in the city including Mancheswar, Chandrasekharpur, Khandagiri and Nayapalli.
The gullible victims often become easy targets for the middlemen. The ‘dalals’ who spend the day in and out of police stations and are often seen chatting with police officials, are mistaken for police staff by the innocent people. The middlemen assure them of help in writing their complaints and arrange quick and efficient response from police officials.
The officers and middlemen often finalize deals through some special gestures. Later, the middleman collects money as bribe from the complainants and pays the officers their share of the money.
The middlemen are so close to station officials that they were also seen interfering in the day-to-day activities of the police station. Recently, an old man raised serious allegations about being cheated by such a middleman at the Khandagiri police where he came to lodge a complaint about a land dispute.
Speaking on the issue, Commissioner of Police Satyajit Mohanty said, “It is a grave issue which came to my notice for the first time. I will ask the officers to keep such elements at bay and not let them inside police stations. Stringent action will be taken against such persons if any complaint is lodged in this regard.”
