Jharkhand police officer seeks Rs 500 bribe from economist Jean Dreze

RANCHI: A police officer in Ranchi allegedly sought Rs 500 from eminent economist Jean Dreze to release his confiscated motorbike on Monday . Dreze lodged a complaint of `attempted bribery , theft and harass ment' against the police with Ranchi deputy commissioner Manoj Kumar later in the day. The complaint was released to the media on Tuesday.

Dreze, a former member of the National Advisory Coun cil during the UPA regime, teaches at Ranchi University .

“I parked and locked the motorbike in the parking lot at Ranchi University PG department in Morhabadi, where I had some work,“ Dreze said.“When I came out of the building about an hour later, the motorbike had disappeared. I went to the nearest Gonda po lice station to file an FIR. The officers on duty refused to register an FIR and asked me to go to Bariatu police station.“

On Monday , the economist went to Gonda police station again with a witness. “This time we were told to go to Lalpur police station, where the officers on duty were not helpful,“ he said. “They seemed to think that it was part of their job to be rude. Eventually , we discovered that the bike was right there. “ Lalpur police station officer in-charge B N Singh said the po lice “took the bike away to protect the bike from theft“.

“After we wanted to register a complaint of theft, a police officer agreed to release the bike,“ Dreze told TOI. “Assistant sub-inspector Suresh Thakur, another officer at the police station, asked us for a bribe of Rs 500 before we left.We refused to pay the bribe.“