Cop forces woman for flesh trade, suspended

Varanasi: In yet another incident that puts a blot on khaki, a police constable, Triloki Bhardwaj, was found to be pressurising a woman to spend a night with a person assuring her a payment of Rs 3,000 for it. The incident came to fore after an audio clip of the same went viral on social media. Deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Varuna zone Amit Kumar on Thursday said taking note of the viral audio clip of the conversation between the constable and a woman, assistant commissioner of police Sarnath was directed to probe the incident. ACP Sarnath found that the voice in that audio clip was of Bhardwaj. Based on the probe report, Bhardwaj was suspended on Wednesday. However, a detailed investigation has been ordered in this connection, he said.In the 1.26-minute audio clip, the cop was heard asking the woman to reach the place of ‘chachi’ to spend night with a man. He was also assuring a payment of Rs 3000 for it. When the woman said she was unable to go there as it was too late in the night, Bhardwaj said he would send chachi’s son with an auto to pick her up. Bhardwaj was also heard assuring the woman that he would handle everything, if she gets caught by police for indulging in flesh trade.During investigation, it came to light that after being retired from the Army, Bhardwaj had joined the police department as constable in 2021.Over the last few days, men in khaki are in the news for the wrong reasons. On June 5, seven cops, including the then inspector Bhelupur Ramakant Dubey, Khojwa outpost in-charge Sushil Kumar and sub-inspectors Mahesh Kumar and Utkarsh Chaturvedi and constables Mahendra Kumar Patel, Kapil dev Pandey and Shivchandra were suspended for keeping the senior officers in dark in a case of robbery of Rs 1.40 crore from a Gujarat-based firm from its Baijnattha office on May 29. On June 10, their services were also terminated.