Tendering an unconditional apology for last year’s incidents in Madras High Court premises during a clash between police and advocates, the then Additional City Police Commissioner (L & O) A. K. Vishwanathan on Tuesday held then police chief K Radhakrishnan responsible for the happenings.
‘The affidavit filed by the commissioner of police that if I had wanted, I could have withdrawn the police force is incorrect. My request to withdraw the police was rejected by the commissioner’, Mr. Viswanathan said in an affidavit in the High Court in connection with the suo motu contempt proceedings initiated against him and three others.
On October 29, a specially constituted Bench of the Court, hearing several petitions by advocates and police relating to the clash, had held Radhakrishnan, then Joint Commissioner of police (North) Ramasubramani and former Deputy Commissioner of Police Prem Anand Sinha and Viswanathan responsible for the incident. The Bench had also directed the registry to initiate suo motu contempt proceedings against the officers.
Mr. Radhakrishnan had now ‘falsely claimed’ that only on demand from the officers on the spot additional reinforcements were sent to control the situation, Mr. Vishwanathan said.
Reiterating that he had only sought permission to withdraw police, Viswanathan said he never sought any reinforcements.
Several advocates and policemen besides a judge were injured during the clash on February 19 last year.
