Preliminary report expected in a fortnight
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID), which has been entrusted with the case where Additional Director-General of Police, KSRP, P. Ravindranath, has been accused of taking photographs of a woman at a coffee shop, launched investigation on Friday. The CID is expected to submit a report within a fortnight.
The CID team, including senior officials Soumendu Mukherjee, DIG, CID, and D.C. Rajappa, SP, CID, visited the coffee shop on Cunningham Road, where the incident occurred, and questioned the employees of the coffee shop.
Ravindra Gadadi, Deputy Superintendent of Police, CID, has been appointed the investigating officer in the case. The CID sleuths tried to reconstruct Monday’s sequence of events at the coffee shop when the senior IPS officer was hauled up for allegedly taking the photographs.
Sources confirmed that video recording of the incident was not available as CCTV cameras in the coffee shop were not functional at the time. The coffee shop reportedly told the CID that the cameras had been shut down for maintenance.
A senior official involved in the probe said that they were waiting for the forensic report on the mobile phone which was allegedly used to take the photographs.
The CID sleuths are likely to question and record the statements of all those involved in the case, including Police Commissioner Raghavendra Auradkar.
Bipin Gopalakrishna, DGP, CID, said that their priority was to complete the probe at the earliest.
Meanwhile, acting on the complaint lodged by Dr. Ravindranath, Cubbon Park Police registered an FIR against Mr. Auradkar, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central) B.R. Ravikanthe Gowda and Sub-Inspector of Police, High Grounds Police, M.S. Ravi, under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
A senior police official told The Hindu that as the Police Commissioner has been named in the FIR and the complainant is not confident of the impartiality of the probe, the police would seek a transfer of the case to the CID. The sources said that the government is likely to transfer this case to the CID as well.
