Rape case registered against suspended Moodbidri Police Inspector P.G. Sandesh

Suspended Police Inspector P.G. Sandesh faces rape and extortion charges after a college principal alleges sexual assault from 2020 to 2023.

Venoor police in Dakshina Kannada have registered a rape case against Moodbidri Police Inspector P.G. Sandesh, who is now under suspension, after Principal of a college in Belthangady taluk in the district filed a complaint accusing him of sexually assaulting her between 2020 and 2023.

Mangaluru City Police Commissioner Sudheer Kumar Reddy suspended Sandesh last week, pending departmental inquiry, on the charge of misbehaving with women.

In the complaint filed on Saturday (March 21, 2026) night, the victim said Sandesh had come to her house in 2018 in connection with the investigation into a complaint related to a land dispute between her and another woman. After resolving it, he sexually assaulted her. Sandesh threatened her of reopening the case and sexually assaulted her till 2023. He also threatened her against reporting it to the police, the victim alleged.

The Principal alleged that Sandesh had taken from her ₹16 lakh cash, ₹4 lakh worth gold and logs of teakwood for his under-construction house in Belthangady.

The police registered her complaint for offences under Sections 64(2) (rape by a police officer), 308 (extortion), 351 (criminal intimidation) under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

The Police Commissioner suspended him on March 17 following a preliminary inquiry by the Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), North Sub Division, Mangaluru, into complaints of a few women to the Karnataka State Commission for Women that the Police Inspector (PI) used to harass them. In a press conference recently, two women alleged that the inspector sought sexual favours from women visiting the police station for any official work. Alternatively, he demanded bribes, the women alleged.