BANGALORE: Additional Director-General of Police P Ravindranath, charged with taking pictures of a woman sitting in a cafe, entered Police Commissioner Raghavendra Auradkar’s office on Wednesday and demanded his own arrest.
Around 1.05 pm, when Additional Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Kamal Pant and the tapal officer were in Auradkar’s chamber, Ravindranath suprised them by walking in.
Although he was offered a seat, he refused and demanded that he be arrested immediately.
“I told him any arrest is done by the investigating officer and in this case, DCP (Central) Ravikanthe Gowda would take a call. However, he would not give up and demanded that I direct the officer to arrest him. At this point, I walked out of my chamber and decided the issue needed to be taken up with our boss,” Auradkar said.
Another altercation ensued outside. When Ravindranath approached Auradkar’s car, the commissioner told him to take his own car.
“He claimed the car was given to him by the government and that it was his property. Am I an untouchable that I cannot even sit in his car with him?” asked Ravindranath, speaking to the media soon after the incident.
They reached DGP Lalrokhuma Pachau’s office at 1.45 pm, and pulled him out of a seminar on the seventh floor. After a brief interaction, the three went their seperate ways.
Ravindranath continued to maintain Auradkar had hatched a plot to malign him.
“On the first day, the police claimed that I had taken pictures and on the second, they claimed I had manhandled the women. All these are serious offences and they should arrest me,” he said.
Ravindranath says the conspirators knew he would go to Medinova on empty stomach for a diagnostic test.
“In the cafe, it was the coffee that I was waiting for. I had a magazine with me, and sure, I was meddling with my phone, but I did not take anybody’s picture,” he said.
Who is Sridhar?
When the incident first came to light, he was the hero at the cafe who rescued two women from Ravindranath. However, Ravindranath claims Sridhar played a key role in framing him. “It was Sridhar who first alleged that I was taking pictures. Only then did the puzzled girls stand up and notice me. Sridhar grabbed my phone and wallet and asked the women to call the police. But within minutes, a SI was at the cafe and a Hoysala was waiting for me outside,” he said. “When I said Sridhar was a rowdy bullying me, Auradkar, who had his arms around me telling me that the police were one family, claimed Sridhar was a good man. How does Auradkar know Sridhar?” asked Ravindranath.
shunted Out
Late on Wednesday, the government transferred P Ravindranath to the office of the DG&IGP. N S Meghrikh, Additional Director-General of Police (Crimes and Technical Services) has been given additional charge of KSRP, which Ravindranath was heading.