‘Lady TN SP ran out of DGP’s car; was stopped by 150 cops en route’  

In a shocking unveiling of facts into the sacking of Special DGP Rajesh Das over sexual harassment charges by a female IPS officer, it has come to light that multiple attempts were made to thwart the complainant from filing her complaint and a team of around 150 police personnel had allegedly tried to stop her car en route.

After speaking to police officers witness to the incident, Indian Express tied up a chronology of events into the incident.

The incident occurred at 10 pm on Sunday on Trichy-Chennai highway when the Special DGP was returning to Chennai after “VIP duty” in a chief minister’s programme in the Kongu region.

A senior officer told IE that the complainant was one of the district in-charges on the route to receive the senior officer.

“Mostly, they do it with a salute and then accompany the convoy. But the senior officer asked her to join him in the car. There is nothing unusual in such a demand,” the officer said.

Sources who spoke to IE said that when the car stopped after 40-minutes, where the IGP (North Zone) K Shankar, DIG M Pandian and IPS officer Ziaul Haque were waiting, the lady officer rushed out of the vehicle and “literally ran for 15-20 metres…”

“But her own official car was far behind. She requested Haque for his car. She didn’t speak about the incident to any of them,” the source said.

The next day Das allegedly asked an officer to contact the woman officer, but couldn’t reach her.

“An hour or two later, the officer came to know that she had left for Chennai. Soon, officers in Villupuram district were ordered to intercept her vehicle. But a team of officers who visited the toll plaza en route reported that her vehicle had already passed through,” a senior officer said.

SP D Kannan and a team of around 150 policemen reportedly intercepted the female SP’s car at Chengalpet and asked her to speak to the senior officer and return. The complainant, however, refused to do any such thing and told the SP that if he doesn’t allow her to proceed she will mention his name in the complaint, following which the latter allowed her car move.

Kannan who confirmed to the incident when approached by IE, however, said that the fact about the number of police personnel wasn’t true. He refused to speak more on the issue.

He had earlier said that he was “merely following orders”.

The female officer was only able to file the complaint with DGP JK Tripathy and the Home Department on the afternoon of February 22, a day after the alleged incident.

Das was removed and put on “compulsory wait” by the state government on February 24. The same day, the home department formed a six-member committee to investigate the case.

The IPS association had also expressed solidarity with the female SP, while demanding the formation of an inquiry committee.

When approached by IE, Das said, the complaint was “politically motivated”.

“Don’t you know that it was a false complaint, that it was political? Why don’t you wait till the outcome of the inquiry? Don’t you know that you are not supposed to write about this case?”

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami on Friday said nothing has been proved in the case so far and a probe is underway.