IPS officer stages sit-in to meet kids

Bengaluru, Feb. 10: A dispute involving a divorced IPS couple played out in full public view here with the man, an SP, staging a sit-in outside the residence of his former wife seeking to meet his children and the latter summoning the police to take action against him.

It all started when Arun Rangarajan, serving as the Superintendent of Police at the Kalaburagi Internal Security Division, arrived at the Vasanth Nagar residence of his divorced wife in plain clothes and squatted outside it late Sunday, accusing her of not allowing him to meet the children. The dharna by the Indian Police Service officer created a scene with public and mediapersons gathering there even as local police arrived on being called by his former wife Ilakkiya Karunagaran, a Deputy Commandant General of Home Guards, complaining he was quarreling with her.

Apparently caught in a dilemma on how to tackle the matter since Rangarajan was a superior officer, police pleaded with him to move away.

Rangarajan then asked them: Am I creating any nuisance here? I am just sitting here."

Turning to mediapersons, he said: You are here for quite sometime. Have you seen me quarrelling with her? But she had called police saying that I am quarrelling with her.

He asked the police under which rule they were asking him to leave the place, saying he has not created any disturbance.

Ours was a love marriage. We were posted in the Naxal infested Chhattisgarh where we got married and within a year differences surfaced. Later, at her insistence we opted to shift to Karnataka cadre. After coming here we got divorced, he said.

Later, he was allowed to meet his children, police said.

THE PROTEST by an IPS officer created a scene with the public and media gathering there even as local police arrived on being called by his former wife Ilakkiya Karunagaran, a Deputy Commandant General of Home Guards, complaining he was quarreling with her.