Chennai: Admonishing an accused in a contempt of court case, the Madras high court has directed him to purchase and distribute the book, Tirukkural to 50 school students of two schools in his area within one month.
Justice S. Vaidyanathan gave the directive while closing a contempt petition filed by Ekambaram, which sought to punish the accused D. Muthu alias Nelson Muthu.
Ekambaram, who was the complainant and an intervenor in the anticipatory bail petition filed by Muthu, filed the present contempt petition, alleging fraud played upon the court by getting anticipatory bail to Muthu.
The judge said the petitioner in the contempt petition submitted that the accused has assaulted the victim and the victim was in the hospital/ICU for more than two months and the victim was now no more.
The accused has obtained an order of anticipatory bail in the second petition filed by him, when the first petition filed by him was pending. Suppressing the pendency of the first petition, the second petition has been filed by him. Only after obtaining anticipatory bail in the second petition, the accused has chosen to withdraw the first petition. When these facts came to light of the complainant, he initiated contempt proceedings stating that the accused has played fraud upon the court, the judge added.
The judge said the action of the accused in not intimating about the factum of pendency of first anticipatory bail petition, in the subsequent petition, cannot be taken lightly.
From the affidavits filed by the accused, it was clear that the accused was aware of both the petitions and he has not evinced any interest to instruct or ensure about the pendency of the earlier anticipatory bail petition, which was not mentioned in the subsequent petition. Hence, the accused has to be punished with fine of Rs 2,000, failing which he should undergo simple imprisonment for two days.
In order to admonish him, this court instead of directing the accused to pay costs, directs him to buy and distribute “Tirukkural” with short meanings in Tamil to 50 students of two schools in his area, the judge added.
