Immigration officer held for molesting Italian

mangaloretoday.com

Bangalore, Dec 7, 2013, DHNS: A 27-year-old Italian woman on an employment visa has accused a junior immigration officer with the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO ) in the City of molesting her while negotiating her exit papers. DH graphics for representation only

A 27-year-old Italian woman on an employment visa has accused a junior immigration officer with the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO ) in the City of molesting her while negotiating her exit papers.

 

Acting on the complaint of Carla (name changed), the HSR Layout police arrested Krishna Kumar (54) on Saturday afternoon and registered a case under Section 354 (outraging the modesty of a woman).

Krishna Kumar is a sub-inspector of police with the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and has been on deputation to the FRRO as the junior immigration officer since July 2012.

Speaking to Deccan Herald, Carla said she came to Bangalore with her two-year-old son on an employment visa in January to work with a Koramangala-based start-up cafeteria chain.

But she injured her leg in a traffic accident in July and claimed she had lost her job as a result. Carla was undergoing physiotherapy for the leg injury. Despite holding a one-year employment visa until January 2014, Carla said she could not afford to stay on in Bangalore without a job and therefore had applied for exit permit with the FRRO in Shantinagar on November 7. She had also booked her flight tickets to Italy for November 12.

However, the paper work to grant her exit permit was taking time and Carla felt she would land in financial trouble by prolonging her stay in the city.  A tout she met on the office premises suggested the name of an FRRO officer who would clear her papers for a small fee. The official, introducing himself as Shiva Kumar, arranged a meeting with Carla at HSR Layout.


When she met the official at the pre-designated spot on November 27, he asked her to get into his car and demanded Rs 44,000 for getting her exit permit in two days.

Carla informed the official that she could not pay him such a large sum and wanted to know if there were other ways he could help her.

The officer, she said, responded by groping and molesting her unmindful of the toddler seated in her lap. He finally heeded to her threats that she would scream and create a scene if he did not stop, but the officer warned Carla that he would create trouble and would see to it that she never returned to India if she complained about the incident.

Though Carla initially did not want to antagonise the official, she felt outraged recalling the incident and decided to give a complaint on December 4. The Italian maintained that the officer used his position to commit the sexual crime and accused Krishna Kumar of harassing her through his friends into withdrawing the complaint.  She said her mother is flying down to be with her.

DCP (South-East) T D Pawar told Deccan Herald that the man had introduced himself as Shiva Kumar when his actual name was Krishna Kumar. The victim had confirmed the arrested man as her molester, he added. Meanwhile, Foreigners Regional Registration Officer in Bangalore Ganesh Kumar said the department has constituted an internal enquiry over the incident.