CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has quashed an order issued by the Chennai City Police Commissioner to detain Manikandan alias CD Mani under the Goondas Act, saying that the some parts of the detention order were not legibly translated into Tamil. Mani has at least 30 criminal cases pending against him.
A division bench of Justices PN Prakash and RN Manjula, which passed the order on a habeas corpus petition filed by Mani’s father N Parthasarathy, said police failed to provide copies of documents, relied upon for detention, legibly translated in Tamil to the detained individual.
After consideration of submissions and upon perusal of documents, especially pages 102 and 103, it is clear that the arrest intimation given to family members has not been properly translated in vernacular language. This had deprived the detenu the opportunity to make effective representation and the detention order is liable to be set aside, the judges said.
The court ordered for Mani’s release forthwith unless his detention is required in any other case. The commissioner issued the detention order on June 26, 2021, after police claimed they had nabbed him on June 2, 2021.