For 19 days in 2019, Hirotoshi Tanaka was among the inmates at the overcrowded Bengaluru Central Prison. He watched prisoners gambling and smoking, and slept on the floor beneath a bed. He went to a church inside the jail and found an unlikely friend in a man convicted of a triple murder.Weeks earlier, he arrived in Bengaluru to learn English. Instead, the Japanese national found himself in prison in a country where he barely understood the language and legal system.What followed was a five-and-a-half-year fight that would take him through a pandemic and deportation before the Karnataka government paid him Rs 75,000 in compensation for the 19 days he spent in jail.Even after leaving India, Tanaka pursued his allegations against the Karnataka police. “I knew nothing about the police system or the courts,” the 36-year-old told The Indian Express from his hometown of Yaizu in Japan’s Shizuoka. “My English is not particularly strong, and I do not understand Kannada at all… Even so, I was able to win the case against the police.” For a couple of nights, he slept in an RT Nagar park. He was allegedly mugged and lost his belongings. Fearing for his safety, Tanaka said he began sleeping in the compound of the RT Nagar police station. (Express photo)New country, then things fall apartTanaka arrived in Bengaluru in October 2019. A psychology graduate, he enrolled at Quickstep English Academy in RT Nagar and hoped to spend time exploring the city. “I found Bangalore to be an energetic and vibrant city. I met many people working in start-ups and was impressed by India’s entrepreneurial spirit,” he said.“I spent many an evening exploring them with friends I had met at hostels, trying different kinds of beer,” Tanaka said.His plans soon began to unravel.Story continues below this adTanaka claimed that problems at the academy surfaced within two weeks of his joining, with classes allegedly being cancelled without explanation.The simmering tension eventually boiled over. Tanaka said that during an argument, the academy’s head tried to walk away: “I grabbed his arm to stop him. He provoked me by saying, ‘If you touch me, you can’t stay in Bangalore anymore!’ I lost my temper and punched him in the face.”This resulted in a criminal case. A case was registered against Tanaka under charges of voluntarily causing hurt and criminal intimidation. The offences were bailable, yet Tanaka was arrested on November 23, 2019.Jail and what happened afterPrison was unlike anything Tanaka had imagined. “Cash circulated freely among inmates. Many prisoners gambled and smoked cigarettes. Although prohibited, smartphones, marijuana, and even alcohol were available,” he claimed.Story continues below this adHe said he spent his days in the prison church and library. “There was also a section for foreign prisoners known as the ‘Negro Room’, where English-language films were shown,” he recalled. “But I was intimidated by some of the inmates there, so I stayed in the psychiatric ward inside the prison hospital.”Though bullying inside the jail was common, he said he found kindness, too. “Chief Superintendent Sheshumurthy allowed me to visit his office and gave me free access to a computer connected to the internet,” he recalled.Then there was Shankar, his ‘closest friend’. “Shankar had been convicted of murdering three people but had become a deeply devoted Christian,” Tanaka said. “He accompanied me to the prison’s video-conference court hearings and stood by me when I had no money for bail. Without Shankar’s help, I don’t think I would have been able to leave prison.”When his bail was finally granted, he said Chief Superintendent Sheshumurthy paid the Rs 4,000 bail amount from his own pocket. “The constables working in his office handed me Rs 20, joking that I should buy myself some coffee and sweets. Before I left, Assistant Superintendent Marigowda gave me another Rs 500 for the auto-rickshaw fare,” he remembered.Story continues below this adTanaka walked out on December 11, 2019. The following day, he went to the station to collect his belongings.By then, he had little money left. Seeing his plight, he said a constable named Raghavendra lent him Rs 1,500. But another officer, B Hanumantharayappa, then a sub-inspector, allegedly demanded a bribe.After some negotiation, Tanaka claimed he paid Rs 5,500, which included the loan he had taken from Raghavendra.On December 19, he was asked to appear in court. Once again, he claimed, Hanumantharayappa demanded Rs 3,000 to close the case. Tanaka decided he would not let the alleged bribe demands go unchallenged. But before he could take on the police, the Covid-19 pandemic upended his life.Visa troubles and a legal fightStory continues below this adIn the middle of his case, Tanaka travelled to Delhi to visit friends in early 2020. But he fell sick, developing Multiple Organ Dysfunction Syndrome. Despite his condition, he returned to Bengaluru by train in March and could not find accommodation.For a couple of nights, he slept in an RT Nagar park. He was allegedly mugged and lost his belongings. Fearing for his safety, Tanaka said he began sleeping in the compound of the RT Nagar police station.One night, he fainted.“When I came to, I found myself in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Bowring Hospital. To this day, I don’t know who took me there,” he told The Indian Express. “I was discharged on March 23. A friend from Mangaluru later helped me find a hostel in BTM Layout.”Then his visa expired. According to Tanaka, an official at the Consulate-General of Japan in Bengaluru approached the police on his behalf, but was told that the case was now before the court. “I had no money at this point,” said Tanaka. “What I had borrowed was gone.”Story continues below this adHe said he was granted a visa extension till July 2020. “But I could not leave India as long as my case remained pending.”His family in Japan was dealing with a crisis of its own. “My mother suffered a cerebral haemorrhage… she was unconscious in hospital. My family did not tell me at the time…,” he said.Tanaka had only one way out: get the case against him withdrawn. He filed a criminal petition.The coaching centre head agreed to resolve the dispute, following which the Karnataka High Court, on November 2, 2020, halted the criminal proceedings and quashed the FIR.Story continues below this adTanaka was now free to leave India, but he “couldn’t forget” what he faced.In December of that year, he filed a complaint against Hanumantharayappa, alleging bribery and harassment before the Karnataka State Human Rights Commission. “I have respect for the police community across the globe as my father is also a police officer. But not at the cost of my self-respect,” he said. “I wanted to fight.”A ‘stolen’ chairThere was, however, a problem: Tanaka was running out of time in India. The Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) sent him a letter, asking him to leave before February 28, 2021. So he decided to do something drastic to halt his deportation.Around 1 am, on February 27, he arrived at the RT Nagar police station. His initial plan, he claimed, was to make a scene. “I’d bought a carbon lathi from a shop selling police equipment near Lalbagh and collected several stones from a nearby park… but as I watched police officers working diligently despite the late hour, I realised attacking them would only cause unnecessary harm…,” he claimed.Story continues below this ad Tanaka stole a chair from the reception of the RT Nagar police station, hoping he would be arrested. (Express photo)That’s when he noticed the plastic chairs at the reception desk of the ACP office. “On my phone, I looked up the offence of theft under the Indian Penal Code (the law then in force)… and found it was a non-bailable offence… Committing theft would inevitably lead to my arrest, so I decided to take the chair instead,” he recalled.He took the white chair to his room, and posted selfies with it on X — the post went viral. He waited, expecting to be arrested. Tanaka took the white chair (left) to his room and posted about it on social media. (Express photo)Nothing happened.The police did not file a case against him, treating the incident — and him — as a “headache”.On March 3, 2021, Tanaka was summoned by the FRRO after a report from the Bengaluru Police’s North Division sought his deportation. “I was planning to return the chair to the ACP’s office,’’ he said.“The sub inspector, however, left the chair at the entrance (of ACP’s office) and took me to the detention centre”.In late April 2021, Tanaka was deported to Japan. He recalled that the police escort included Head Constable Raghavendra — the same officer who had lent him Rs 1,500. “He told me, ‘Please come again’,” Tanaka said.But he was not done with the case.From Japan, he kept fightingTanaka engaged Bengaluru-based advocate Rohan Kothari to represent him before the Karnataka State Human Rights Commission, which ordered an inquiry into his allegations.On May 9, 2022, the commission ruled in Tanaka’s favour. It recommended that the state government pay him Rs 75,000 as compensation; consider disciplinary action and recovery of the amount from Hanumantarayappa; and issue appropriate guidelines for police officers in cases involving foreign nationals or illiterate persons when they are arrested.The commission’s chairperson DH Waghela said in the order, “The non-mentioning of the procedure regarding non-cognizable and bailable offences in the report submitted by the Assistant Commissioner of Police indicated that police officials were not able to furnish any proper reason for the arrest of the accused, which led to the unnecessary judicial custody of the complainant for merely 19 days.”But the Karnataka Police and state government allegedly did not act on the order. “I waited for nearly two months,” said Tanaka. “I then moved the Karnataka High Court in September 2022 with a petition seeking the implementation of the KSHRC’s recommendations.”The case dragged on.Finally, in April this year, the state government filed an affidavit, stating it would transfer Rs 75,000 to Tanaka’s counsel’s account. The Additional Government Advocate also said disciplinary action has been initiated against Hanumantharayappa. On June 22, the government paid his counsel.“The government has informed the court that of the three recommendations made by the state human rights panel, they have cleared two — the compensation to Tanaka and disciplinary action against the officer,” Kothari said.Hanumantharayappa, now 65, denied ever asking for a bribe.“In my 35 years and four months of service, this was the first time that a department inquiry was initiated against me,” he told The Indian Express.He said Tanaka hit the coaching centre head badly and that while the case was bailable at the police station, the Japanese national did not have the surety required for release.“I had no choice but to produce him before the magistrate who handed him over to judicial custody. I did not decide it independently. Then the police inspector, assistant commissioner of police were also informed about it,” he said.Hanumantharayappa said he has contested the human rights panel judgment in the Karnataka High Court. “Presently, the court is hearing the matter. The city police have settled the amount… I have followed the rule book and I will fight the case,” he asserted.And then, there was loveAmid all that he went through in Bengaluru, Tanaka found something worthwhile — his future wife.She was from the Northeast. They first met at a bar he frequented.When lockdown restrictions began to ease, he went looking for her at her workplace, only to discover that she no longer worked there and had left the city.“Armed with nothing more than her first name, I searched Instagram until I found one of her former colleagues. Through that colleague’s Facebook friends list, I eventually found her profile,” he said.She returned to Bengaluru for a new job and they went on several dates.“She stood with me during tough times. In fact, she was the one who encouraged me to file a petition in court,” he said.But by the time of the plastic chair incident, they lost touch. “She later told me that I’d been far too persistent,” Tanaka said. “After I was deported to Japan, she told me, ‘If you continue to behave like this, I’m afraid I would not even count you as my friend’. Even so, we gradually rebuilt our relationship online,” added Tanaka.In March 2024, she travelled to Japan as a tourist. Together, they visited Tokyo, Tanaka’s hometown of Yaizu, Kyoto and Osaka. “We got engaged during that trip. In 2025, we got married,” he said.Now, his wife is back in Bengaluru while her spouse visa for Japan is being processed.Despite being blacklisted after his deportation, there’s one thing Tanaka wants from India. “I wish to visit my wife’s hometown and meet her family…”