Additional Director-General of Police (ADGP) P. Ravindranath presented himself before Criminal Investigation Department (CID) sleuths on Monday to record his statement.
The CID is investigating both cases — the coffee shop case where Dr. Ravindranath is accused of taking photographs of a woman and the case Dr. Ravindranath lodged against Police Commissioner Raghavendra H. Auradkar and two other police officials under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
Dr. Ravindranath was questioned by senior CID officials for close to four hours and his statement was recorded pertaining to the atrocity case.
CID officials had summoned Dr. Ravindranath on Sunday, but he had excused himself from appearing before them. Dr. Ravindranath, before presenting himself before the CID, said that CID officials had only sought to record his statement in the atrocity case and were avoiding recording his version of events in the coffee shop case, which he claimed was detrimental to his interests. He said he would seek legal opinion and would approach the High Court to direct the investigating agency to record his statement.
Padam Kumar Garg, ADGP, CID, said that “whatever was required legally was being done”. He refused to divulge further details of the probe.
However, CID sources said the procedure required the recording of the complainant’s statement before investigation was taken up. In the coffee shop case, Dr. Ravindranath is not the complainant.
Sources say that Dr. Ravindranath demanded that Sridhar, a customer at the coffee shop who, he alleged, snatched away his (Dr. Ravindranath’s) mobile phone, be questioned. CID officials reportedly declined.
In a related development, Dr. Ravindranath also met Public Works Minister H.C. Mahadevappa late on Monday evening. The Minister, it is learnt, tried to prevail upon the senior IPS officer to withdraw his resignation.
