Police Commissioner Raghavendra Auradkar, who has been accused by senior IPS officer P. Ravindranath of framing him in a criminal case, said here on Thursday that his colleague voluntarily lodged himself in the police lock-up at High Grounds here on Monday.
According to Mr. Auradkar, when Dr. Ravindranath was brought to the police station for inquiry, he was not arrested. But, he went on his own into the cell and locked himself up.
On Dr. Ravindranath’s claim that the police sub-inspector concerned manhandled, abused and locked him up in the station despite being aware of his senior rank, Mr. Auradkar said that his questioning of the sub-inspector revealed that Dr. Ravindranath himself went into the cell and locked himself up.
Mr. Auradkar said that he was with senior officers at the Vidhana Soudha when he got a message at around 1.15 p.m. about the incident. “I immediately informed the Director-General and Inspector-General of Police and other higher-ups,” he said. The D-G and I-GP said that he would conduct an inquiry as an officer of the rank of an ADGP (equivalent to the rank of the Police Commissioner) was involved, he recalled.
On the delay in filing the FIR, Mr. Auradkar said that the woman complainant was initially hesitant in giving a complaint. Eventually, she agreed to lodge the complaint. Then the police booked a case under Sections 354 and 506 IPC, he said.
Meanwhile, Dr. Ravindranath said that he had antagonised senior police officers on the issue of misuse of KSRP personnel for their personal work.
“Being a disciplined force, I wanted to make it professional on par with the armed forces, to create a sense of fear among anti-social elements. However, some senior officers misused their powers and resorted to taking trained police personnel in as orderlies,” he said.
Dr. Ravindranath also made serious allegations against senior officers charging them with misusing “secret funds” and other benefits for their personal use.
Dr. Ravindranath’s wife Sridevi said that her husband was being framed as he is one of the strong contenders for the post of Police Commissioner in Bangalore. “It is a deep-rooted conspiracy and I hope the CID investigation will expose this,” she said.
