Contempt notice served on police

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Chennai: The arrest of the Coonoor judicial magistrate on a rape complaint by a wo­m­an sub-inspector of police took a different turn with the Madras HC initiating suo motu contempt proce­e­d­ings against five police off­icials, including Ti­ru­pur SP. Notices were iss­ued asking them to appear before the court on July 29.
Taking suo motu cognisance for “committing co­n­tempt of court” in the m­a­tter relating to the ar­r­est of S. Thangaraj, JM, Co­o­n­o­or, the first bench, co­­m­p­ri­sing acting chief ju­stice R.K. Agrawal and Justice M. Sathy­anara­yan­an, re­b­u­ked the police for showi­ng scant respect and disre­g­ard to the guidelines fr­a­med by the Supreme Court and deliberately violating them.
“Blatant misuse of po­w­er to the gu­id­e­l­ines issued by the SC in Delhi judicial service association Vs State of Gujarat has compelled us to take suo motu action for comm­it­ting contempt by the five police officers,” the bench said.
This action followed an intervention by TN advoc­a­tes’ association president S. Prabakaran. Producing a copy of the SC judgment, he said, “I don’t want to file any petition and argue the matter. Please just go through the judgment.”
Thereafter, the bench iss­ued notices seeking expla­n­a­tion from the police, inc­lu­ding SP Ponni, Palladam DSP Suresh Kumar, Udu­m­­alpet DSP C. Pitchai, Ko­ma­rapalayam inspector K. Shanthamoorthy and Pal­l­a­dam all women police sta­ti­on (AWPS) sub-inspector Krishnakumar.
Going into the sequence of events relating to the ar­rest, the bench observed th­at it was evident that the pol­ice officials had inten­ti­o­­nally breached the SC gu­id­elines, which stated that if a judicial officer ought to be held for some offence, it should be carried out un­der intimation to the district judge or the high court as the case might be.
Magistrate on bail, back on duty
 
Coimbatore: The judicial magistrate of the fast track court, Coonoor, was back on duty Tuesday after being enlarged on bail Monday late evening. Tirupur district and principal sessions court judge Ganesan granted bail to judicial magistrate S. Thangaraj (31) on Monday.
 
In a related development, advocates of Tirupur boycotted the court, to condemn his arrest. On June 29, based on a complaint by woman sub-inspector Uma Maheswari, 30, personnel of the Palladam all woman police station arrested the judicial magistrate of the fast track court, Coonoor. However, he was released on bail and is back on duty.
 
PIL seeks extradition of LTTE man kp
 
Coimbatore: A public interest litigation has been filed in the Madras HC to order the extradition of Kumaran Pad­ma­na­bha, a survivor of the Liberation of Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), currently detained in a prison in Sri Lanka. This will unravel the truth in the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in May 1991.
 
In the petition, Mr J. Mohanraj,  submitted that Kumaran Padma­n­abha, known as KP, knew secrets regarding the murder of Rajiv Ga­ndhi. He alleged that using these secrets, the Lankan government was blackmailing the Indian government.