Chennai, June 15: For 10 years, the two police officers had insisted their uniforms entitled them and their colleagues to free lunches — and breakfasts and dinners — while the restaurant they targeted lacked the stomach for a fight.

Now the two cops are feeling the bite of a Rs 1-lakh fine the state human rights commission has imposed on each in an order that highlights the seamy underbelly of police extortion.

Inspector S. Seetharaman and special sub-inspector V. Thiruvengadam, attached to the Maduravayal police station in suburban Chennai, allegedly forced a local restaurant to supply free meals to them and their police station since 2002.

The commission order came following a complaint lodged last year by one of the eatery’s owners, K. Dharmaraj.

“When we asked them to settle their bills, they refused. They demanded that we also supply breakfast, lunch and dinner for four other police personnel at the station without payment. When we refused, they beat up two of our staff and booked them under false cases,” Dharmaraj’s petition said.

During the hearings, Dharmaraj’s lawyer attributed the 10-year delay in filing the complaint to his client’s fear of harassment by the police.

He said the restaurant had petitioned senior police officers for redress but to no avail. Eventually, it found the courage to approach the rights panel after both the accused officers were removed from local duty in connection with other misdemeanours.

Inspector Seetharaman was suspended in a bribery case last year while sub-inspector Thiruvengadam was transferred for dereliction of duty.

In his petition, Dharmaraj had sought a compensation of Rs 2 lakh each from the two officers for the food supplied over a decade, the harassment and the mental agony.

Dharmaraj and his three partners have been running the restaurant out of a 600sqft space for the past 15 years, catering mostly to a middle and working-class clientele.

The eatery usually serves idli and dosa for breakfast and paratha, puri or chapatti with curry for lunch and dinner. The three meals would together cost a customer about Rs 100 a day.

“We did not mind the two officers occasionally stopping for food but when they wanted it on a regular basis, it hurt our business,” Dharmaraj explained.

After an inquiry, the commission directed the state government to pay Rs 2 lakh to the restaurant owners and deduct the sum from the two cops’ salaries.

Describing the two officers’ act as “shameful”, the commission chairman suggested severe departmental punishment for them.

“Considering the gravity of the violation of human rights by the police officials against innocent people who were running a lawful business, this commission is of the considered view and opinion that the two police personnel should be severely dealt with,” he said.

It is usual practice for Chennai eateries to waive the bill when local policemen occasionally drop in for a bite, but very rarely do officers expect restaurants to supply free meals regularly to all the staff at a police station.

“It is always safe to be in the police’s good books, so that they respond fast if we complain about troublemakers in our restaurant,” said a restaurant manager in Adyar, a south Chennai locality.

He agreed that the way the Maduravayal restaurant was forced to feed an entire police station for years was unacceptable.

Calcutta police sources admitted to “symbiotic” arrangements in the Bengal capital too, where sweets shops or restaurants offer snacks and meals to officers “voluntarily and without compulsion”, and the police help them in small ways.

“During night patrols, or when cops are on a major law-and-order duty near an eatery, the owner often offers food on his own,” a senior officer at the Lalbazar police headquarters said.

Officers claimed that in parts of Brabourne Road, Bhowanipore and Ballygunge, certain restaurant owners do occasionally “send” food for the anti-rowdy section of local police stations or for officers in charge of traffic guards.

“In return, the police look the other way when customers park their vehicles in the middle of the road in front of the eatery for long periods,” an officer said.

Calcutta police sources claimed they knew of no instances when officers coerced free meals out of one particular eatery for a prolonged period.

“In Calcutta, officers are transferred out of a locality within three years, anyway,” the Lalbazar source said.