‘Daalu, call me Paapu’: Bengaluru cop’s texts to ‘Lady Don’ Yashaswini Gowda spark row

BENGALURU: "What are you doing, daalu (darling)? Why are you not speaking to me?" His tone is earnest and insistent, edged with passion. This line could have been plucked out of a movie. Just that this audio clip is that of a Bengaluru police inspector trying to woo the city's first female rowdy-sheeter, blurring the line between power and persuasion in unlikeliest romance gone wrong.

The latest embarrassment to hit Karnataka's khaki force is a string of audio clips and text messages allegedly by Konanakunte inspector Papanna to Yashaswini Gowda, who's infamously called in police circles as ‘Lady Don'.

In the clips, the inspector is purportedly trying to urge the woman to stop calling him ‘Sir' and instead address him as ‘Paapu', a term of endearment. He expressed a desire to kiss her. He reportedly harassed her with these messages after she turned down his romantic overtures.

Bengaluru City police commissioner Seemanth Kumar Singh said a preliminary inquiry will be initiated even though the woman is yet to lodge a complaint. Dismissing the clips, sources claimed the officer was lured into a trap and the text messages doing the rounds were more than eight years old.

In the audio message, the officer allegedly questions her silence. When she continues to address him formally, he insists he has never behaved "like a police officer with her". The exchange turns mushy as he suggests he would have visited her home if she had invited him and later asks her to delete his messages before hanging up.

The woman told reporters that the messages were "filthy" and said she received threats when she recently attempted to lodge a complaint at the DCP (South) office. "I was warned that my children would be harmed if I went ahead (with a complaint)," she said. What more action would be taken against the officer since he has been suspended twice earlier on similar charges, she claimed. She added: "If this is happening to me, what about other women? Many end up taking extreme steps in such situations."

The woman was booked in Feb this year under Karnataka Control of Organised Crime Act in connection with a 2025 kidnapping case at Mahalakshmi Layout, Bengaluru. She was recently released on bail. Over a decade ago, she had been declared a rowdy-sheeter by Basavanagudi police — a notoriety that was erased later.

Sources close to Papanna said she had tried to lodge a complaint in 2016 too, but court dismissed the allegations. "The voice in the audio is not that of Papanna and the messages could be doctored," sources claimed.