When the men stopped the cash van on a Bengaluru road on the morning of November 19, they looked official enough to raise no alarm. Dressed with confidence and flashing documents that resembled credentials from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Income Tax Department, they told the crew they were acting on orders.
Within minutes, nearly ₹7.11 crore had vanished.
What stunned investigators was not just the scale of the robbery, one of the largest daylight cash heists in Bengaluru’s recent history, but who was allegedly involved. As the inquiry unfolded over the next 60 hours, the trail led back inside the police force itself.
A serving police constable attached to Govindarajanagar police station was identified as part of the planning and execution of the crime, working with a former employee of CMS Info Systems. The constable was suspended and detained as arrests were made, the vehicle was recovered and much of the cash traced.
The case has since become a touchstone for a deeper crisis confronting the Karnataka police.
Data from the state police department shows that misconduct within the force is no longer episodic but systemic. In the first 11 months of this year, 236 police personnel have been suspended across Karnataka. More than half of them were posted in Bengaluru city.
In the last ten months alone, 124 police personnel of various ranks, including ten inspectors and 82 constables, have been suspended for their alleged involvement in crimes such as robbery, corruption and dereliction of duty, including cases linked to drug dealing.
According to information shared by the police, the suspended officers include ten inspectors, 16 sub inspectors, 16 assistant sub inspectors, 41 head constables and 41 constables.
The figures capture only one dimension of the problem. Across the state, 42 policemen are currently facing criminal cases involving serious offences such as dacoity, robbery, kidnapping and extortion. Senior officers say the scale of the problem has rattled the department’s leadership.
In a sharply worded circular issued earlier this month, Director General and Inspector General of Police MA Saleem warned officers that the department was losing public trust. “Our police are getting arrested for robbing victims of gold, planning dacoity, kidnapping victims for ransom, etc,” Saleem wrote, stressing the need to restore transparency, discipline and commitment within the force.
The incidents cited in internal reviews span a wide range of misconduct, but a common thread runs through many of them: the abuse of police authority to prey on ordinary citizens.
In December, a head constable posted at the Cyber Crime Police Station inside the Bengaluru City Police Commissioner’s Office compound was booked for theft after allegedly stealing ₹11 lakh in cash and other valuables from a car seized during an investigation.
According to investigators, the car and its driver had been brought to the station as part of a cybercrime probe. The head constable, Zabiullah Gudiyal, later admitted that he took the cash and valuables home without informing his superiors. An FIR was registered under the Indian Penal Code, and he was suspended from duty.
A month earlier, in Davanagere, two police sub inspectors, Malappa Chippalakatte and Praveen Kumar, were arrested for allegedly robbing a jewellery artisan. The victim had been travelling with a 76 gram gold bar and a ring when the officers stopped him, identified themselves as policemen and seized the gold under threat.
The arrests, based on the artisan’s complaint and subsequent investigation, were flagged by state authorities.
Other cases have involved extortion rather than outright theft.
In September, Bengaluru district police suspended constable Prashanth Navi of the Internal Security Division after a complaint alleged that he and an associate were extorting money from ragpickers and pourakarmikas. The payments, collected from some of the city’s most vulnerable workers, were allegedly taken in exchange for protection or to avoid harassment. Following an investigation, the constable was arrested along with his accomplice.
There have also been instances where allegations of theft spiralled into custodial abuse. In late October, a domestic help was summoned to the Varthur police station in Bengaluru after her employer accused her of stealing a diamond ring. Inside the station, three police personnel allegedly detained and assaulted her during questioning, resulting in injuries serious enough for a medico-legal case to be registered. All three officers were suspended pending a departmental inquiry.
Taken together, the cases have resulted in a rare public response from the political leadership.
Home minister G Parameshwara warned that administrative action would not stop at suspension. “Policemen involved in corrupt practices will not only be suspended but also dismissed from service, after their involvement is verified,” he said.
The police leadership has moved to contain the damage. On 5 December, a statewide circular ordered integrity checks, background verification and stricter oversight of personnel. The memo explicitly referred to recent cases involving robbery, theft and high-value cash crimes, including the Bengaluru ATM cash van heist and the Davanagere jewellery robbery.