Bengaluru: A senior police officer who landed in hot water after being caught clicking pictures of two women in a café in the city, tendered his resignation on Tuesday amid high drama. The senior police official has been identified as Dr P Ravindranath, Additional Director General of Police of the Karnataka State Reserve Police. An FIR was been registered against the official for allegedly assaulting and using criminal force on a woman with the intent of outraging her modesty and using criminal intimidation against her to get out of trouble. One of the women is a freelance journalist and the other is her cousin, employed with an IT company in the city.
The incident reportedly happened at a café on Cunningham Road on Monday morning when the duo had met up. In a complaint filed by the women, they said they noticed a man in his fifties ogling them and he even tried to click their pictures using his cell phone. When one of the women confronted him, he stood up, issued an apology and tried to flee. The enraged woman snatched his phone and found there were two pictures of her in it. Soon other customers rallied behind the women and informed the police. It was also alleged in the complaint that the man told the women that he was an influential person and threatened them.
Initially, the Cubbon Park police sub-inspector M.S. Ravi attended the case and took the man into custody, thinking him to be a common offender. He seized the phone and other belongings of the accused from the woman. Only later did they realise that the man in custody was an ADGP. Around 9.30 pm on Monday, the women returned and lodged a formal complaint against the man they encountered at the café. The High Grounds police have registered a case under IPC sections 506 and 354. However in the FIR it was stated that it was an ‘unknown’ man in his 50s, who clicked the pictures.
Meanwhile, DCP Central division told reporters that the investigating team will bring the accused to book.
