VELLORE:The Judicial Magistrate (JM) Court in Ambur has dismissed a petition seeking to shift one of the accused in the red sanders smuggling case from the Vellore prison, observing that the request should come either from the aggrieved person or the jail superintendent and not from a ‘third party’.
In his petition, Viswanathan, son of Nagendran (47) a co-accused in the red sanders smuggling case, claimed that his father was being threatened by former Prohibition Enforcement Wing Deputy Superintendent of Police K Thangavelu (51) and three others - Gopu, Loganathan and Mariyappan of Kancheepuram district - all lodged in the Vellore Central Prison for Men in the same case.
The quartet also wanted Nagendran to inform the court that the Deputy Superintendent of Police had no role in the case, besides bearing all their legal expenses.
Nagendran’s family came to know of this when they visited him at the prison earlier this week. They claimed that Nagendran’s life was under threat from the Deputy Superintendent of Police and the other three accused.
Subsequently, Viswanathan filed a petition in the Judicial Magistrate court, pleading to shift his father from the Vellore prison to any other prison.
However, Magistrate R A S Anandaraj dismissed the plea stating that the court cannot entertain a third party petition, and directed Viswanathan to approach the Madras High Court.
“The court told the petitioner (Viswanathan) that it can consider petitions either from the aggrieved person or the prison superintendent,” said a source.
It is learnt that the court had communicated to the prison administration to look into the issue.
Prison Superintendent V Karupannan and other senior officials of the prison could not be reached for comments.
Meanwhile, Magistrate Anandaraj on Thursday issued an order extending the judicial custody of Thangavelu, Gopu, Loganathan and Mariyappan till July 23.