Police Commissioner B.G. Jyothi Prakash Mirji, who was summoned by the Lokayukta Court on Tuesday for failing to provide police protection to RTI activist T.J. Abraham, assured the court that he would immediately provide him with security cover.
Mr. Abraham, who has filed cases in the Lokayukta Court against several powerful politicians, bureaucrats as well as businessmen, had recently filed a memo to the court stating he apprehended threat to his life and that the city police had failed to provide protection to him despite repeated requests.
Appearing before Lokayukta Judge N.K. Sudhindra Rao, Mr. Mirji said he would provide Mr. Abraham with protection as per the need. However, Mr. Abraham’s counsel sought to know why it had not yet been provided and told Mr. Mirji the question of the police applying their discretion did not arise in this case. To this Mr. Mirji said that he would provide security immediately although he did not say when.
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The proceedings witnessed some drama when Mr. Abraham’s lawyer K.V. Dhananjay quoted media reports which said police constables were being illegally deployed as domestic help and carpenters in the houses of senior officers. He sought to know from Mr. Mirji why he could not deploy police personnel for a legitimate reason. Mr. Mirji replied he had never said that he was unable to provide security on account of manpower shortage. Earlier Mr. Mirji told the court that he had not received the summons or a copy of the memo filed by Mr. Abraham. He had turned up in court after he read about the summons in the media. The case has been posted to January 5, 2013