Mangaluru: The city police commissioner Sandeep Patil directed rowdies/gangs by a tweet to steer clear from settling land and financial disputes has created a buzz among the city police force.

The tweet in the same breath also warns people not to approach such anti-social elements but to get the issues faced by them addressed legally, and that action has been initiated against those who sought help from anti-social elements to get one such case addressed at Kadri.

Patil has issued a memo to all police stations directing the station house officers to take serious note of any attempts by rowdies or gangs to settle land and financial disputes. Police have been asked to invoke the provisions of The Karnataka Prohibition of Charging Exorbitant Interest Act, 2004 and other provisions of Indian Penal Code to deal with anyone who strives to act as an intermediary to settle such cases that is normally the domain of courts.

A senior police officer surmised that the tweet by the city police chief in a way has strictly laid down the law of the land before the men in khaki. “Police normally do not intervene in civil disputes involving land and money and advise the aggrieved parties to settle the same in court,” the officer said, adding any attempt to settle the case will invariably be seen by the person against whom the matter has been settled, to suspect malafide intent.

The seemingly lengthy wait in courts to get such land or financial disputes settled is perhaps what pushes people to approach anti-social elements for quick disposal of cases, the officer surmised. This approach will see anti-social elements resort to use of force or threat which in turn attracts IPC provisions including extortion, robbery or dacoity, as the case may be, and hence the general advise to people to use legal means to settle such disputes, the officer said.