Madras high court stays proceedings against president of Off The Record' club
Chennai: The Madras high court has stayed all further proceedings in a criminal case registered against C.Saravanan, president of Gold Youth Movement Recreation Club, which is running a club (bar) in the name and style ‘Off The Record’ in Nugambakkam.
Justice N.Anand Venkatesh granted the interim stay for 8 weeks and ordered notice to the inspector of police, Nungambakkam police station on a petition filed by C.Saravanan.
Petitioner’s counsel Abudukumar submitted that the case of the prosecution was that Gold Youth Movement Recreation Club being a registered club on obtaining necessary FL-2 license from the government was running a club in the name of style Off The Record and the police conducted a raid on September 22, 2018, and found that the club has breached the terms and conditions of the license and permit granted to them and have allowed non-members of the club to consume liquor and hence the present case has been registered for the offences under section 24 of Tamil Nadu Prohibition Act and the police after investigation have filed a final report and the same was pending before the XIV Metropolitan Magistrate, he added.
Abudukumar submitted that all of a sudden on September 22, 2018, the police under the guise of raid in a hasty and hurried manner barged into the club and picked up two of the employees and took them to station and registered the FIR and remanded them to judicial custody. Though admittedly, the petitioner was not present at the premises during the alleged raid, the police has falsely implicated him for the reasons best known to them and have also filed the final report.
The police without even being aware of the terms of the license granted with an preconceived notion to register a case has orchestrated the alleged raid and has registered the FIR with false and baseless allegation. As per the licence granted, the petitioner can supply liquor to their members and their guests but the police have registered the case and filed the final report on the assumption that the petitioner should supply liquor only to its members and so the present charge sheet was bad in law and ought to be quashed, Abudukumar added.
