High drama continued in Mysore, a day after IAS officer and Director-General of Administrative Training Institute (ATI) Rashmi V. was attacked on Wednesday. The officer held a press conference here and apart from making allegations of corruption against several senior bureaucrats, she also claimed that the police had deliberately failed to avert the attack or protect her.
In her report sent to Chief Secretary Kaushik Mukherjee, Ms. Rashmi said a mob entered the ATI carrying the body of mess supervisor Venkatesh and armed with stones and a video camera. “They would have lynched me, but for the fact that I did not lose my balance and fall down. The police, at the behest of ADGP Intelligence A.M. Prasad, chose not to be there even in terms of a token presence though my office was in touch with the office of the Commissioner of Police since morning,” she alleged.
Mr. Prasad is the husband of IAS officer Amita Prasad, who was Ms. Rashmi’s predecessor and director of the institute between 2008 and 2014. Ms. Rashmi had made allegations of corruption against her.
However, Police Commissioner M.A. Saleem denied Ms. Rashmi’s allegations of police inaction. “How can it be? She has not told us so. There was no protest that was planned at ATI. The body was supposed to go to Kunigal, the native place of the deceased. The trouble started only after the body was brought to the ATI. We have already suspended sub-inspector Narendra Babu, who had to ensure that the body was taken to Kunigal,” he said.
18 arrestedMeanwhile, the city police have arrested 18 persons in connection with the assault on Ms. Rashmi. The arrested were produced before the court on Thursday evening and remanded in judicial custody till October 29, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) A.N. Rajanna.
Mr. Rajanna said the arrested included two permanent staff members of the ATI, a former ATI security guard as well as housekeeping and catering staff working with contractors, whose services had been terminated.
“Our personnel are still verifying the visuals obtained from the video recording of the attack and the footage from CCTV cameras installed on the ATI premises.”
“It was Mr. Babu’s duty to ensure that Venkatesh’s body was sent to his native village after the post-mortem. The trouble broke out only because the body was allowed to be brought back to the institute,” said Mr. Rajanna.
A notice has also been served on Nazarbad police inspector K.C. Poovaiah to give an explanation, he added.
