Keadilan supreme council member N Gobalakrishnan, who has been accused of running down a policeman with his car, will be charged tomorrow, said his lawyer M Manoharan today.

He said the politician was expected to be charged with "causing injury to a public officer in the course of his duty" under section 332 of the Penal Code.

He was released on police bail and told to report to the Tapah magistrate's court tomorrow.

If found guilty, Gobalakrishnan can be jailed up to two years or fined RM 2,000 or both.

"My clients is innocent of the charge. He said he had been framed and will fight till the end," said his lawyer when contacted.

Seven-hour wait

Manoharan (photo) said he and two other lawyers P Uthayakumar and R Sivanesan as well as the politician's family had to wait for more than seven hours at the magistrate's court before being told that he will not be charged today.

"They brought him to court at 9am but then they took him back to the Tapah police station stating that they have yet to receive any instructions from the Attorney-General's chambers. We had to wait as the remand order ended at 3pm today," he said.

Gobalakrishnan had allegedly committed the offences at about 10.30pm on Tuesday near Sungkai, Perak, along the North-South Highway. The Keadilan leader had been remanded since then.

Apart from running down the cop, he was also accused of speeding away from a police roadblock.

Meanwhile, Uthayakumar (photo) said the police had committed contempt of court for continuing Gobalakrishnan's detention after 3pm.

He added that a formal complaint will be lodged with the magistrate tomorrow.

"So the detention between 3pm and 4pm was wrong as it exceeded the remand order which allowed detention till 3pm. We will complain but it is up to the magistrate on what action should be take against the police, in particular the investigating officer and the Tapah OCPD (district police chief)," he added.

He also believes that his client will be freed of the charges as the police had "started" the incident "on the wrong footing".

"My client has the right to leave the policeman because there was no warrant that can compel him to stay.

"How can they say that the warrant is in Bukit Aman and that he had to wait for them to get it. That is not only ridiculous but also wrong," he said.

Gobalakrishnan's version

Yesterday, malaysiakini reported the Keadilan leader's version of the incident, where he denied running down the policeman or speeding off from the roadblock.

Gobalakrishnan said he was stopped at the roadblock in Sungkai and was asked for his identity card.

When he gave the IC to the policeman, he was told that he had an impending arrest warrant for a traffic violation and that he was required to surrender himself.

He claimed that when he asked for the arrest warrant to be shown first, he was told that it was at the federal police headquarters in Bukit Aman.

He then questioned the need for him to surrender and told the policemen to serve him the warrant first, and they told him to wait for their superior while withholding his IC.

After waiting for about 30 minutes, Gobalakrishnan told the policeman that he would collect his IC from the police station the next day and started driving. He then heard something hitting his car's side-view mirror.

He then drove to a rest area in Bidor where a group of policemen arrived and accused him of running down one of their colleagues. He was then arrested and taken to the Slim River police station.