Chennai: Madras high court has directed deputy commissioner of police, St Thomas Mt, to appear in person before the court on August 6, 2018, as he failed to initiate action against persons, who assaulted women in the area last year.
The Division Bench comprising Justice N. Kirubakaran and Justice Krishnan Ramasamy, before which a petition from G. Natarajan father of an advocate - Guruprasadh, directed Deputy Commissioner of Police, St Thomas Mt, M.S. Muthuswamy to appear in person on August 6, 2018.
In the petition, Natarajan sought a direction to quash the proceedings dated June 14, 2018, initiated by the Deputy Commissioner (South), Greater Chennai Corporation. He closed the criminal complaint given by the petitioner as civil in nature.
In the original complaint given to the police station Natarajan had alleged that unauthorized construction had been carried out by G. Rajendran, near his house. Angered over this, the adjacent land owner had trespassed into his house along with rowdy elements. Many of them claimed themselves as advocates. They had assaulted the women in his family.
When the mater came up in the morning the bench directed the appearance of the inspector of Pallikaranai. When inspector Sivakumar appeared before the bench in the afternoon, he submitted that the FIR has been registered at 1.45 pm. He registered the FIR after coming to know that he was summoned by the bench.
The Bench said “Sivakumar, who was working as inspector of police, Pallikaranai on October 22, 2017, instead of registering an FIR on the complaint made by the petitioner family, simply gave a CSR, despite the cognizable offences were made out for registering FIR under IPC and Tamil Nadu Protection of Women Harassment Act. Though the video clippings showing the attack on the women were submitted to the inspector and he refused to receive the same. In the video it was recorded that Selvakumar and associate alleged to be advocates involved in the attack. The police did not take any steps to apprehend the accused.
Earlier, the high court had directed the Commissioner of Police to enquire into the whole episode and take action who in turn directed the Deputy Commissioner of Police MS Muthuswamy to look into the issue. The Deputy Commissioner filed a report stating that it is a civil dispute and hence it has to be decided by the civil court.”
Taking serious view that the police had not acted on the complaint though the cognizable offence is made out and the nexus between the advocates and the police in the above matter the bench directed the personal appearance of the Deputy Commissioner of Police M.S. Muthuswamy to appear in person on August 6, 2018.
