CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Wednesday took strong exception to the way the Goondas Act was invoked against a realtor involved in forging signatures and cheating house buyers without taking stringent action as per criminal law.
A vacation bench of justices G R Swaminathan and V Lakshminarayanan termed the order of detention, which was signed by senior police officer A Arun, in his capacity as the then commissioner of the Greater Chennai Police, as “atrocious” and “shook its conscience”.
The bench made the observations, in the presence of Arun, currently serving as the director of Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC), when a plea seeking emergency leave for the realtor, Santhosh Sharma, came up for hearing.
However, the officer justified the action stating that the realtor had cheated the home buyers by forging her signature for double registration of the flats allotted to them. He also said the affected buyers had gathered and resorted to protests.
When the bench pointed to his track record, the officer said, “I have not misused my official position not even once during my 28 years of service.” He also said only certain sections are levelling false allegations against him.
Proceedings began with fiery scenes in the morning when the plea came up for hearing and Arun appeared as per the orders of the court. The bench was seething in anger when it stated the bailiff (R Harikrishnan) was made to wait from 3.05 pm to 5.15 pm on Tuesday when he went to serve summons to Arun at the DVAC office.
Directing the officer concerned, who made the bailiff wait, to appear before the court, the bench passed over the case asking Arun to wait till then in the court. When the DVAC officer concerned appeared, the bench pilloried him on the delay.
State counsel John Sathyan, representing the police, submitted that it was “not an intentional mistake”. The bailiff had to wait since Arun was in a confidential meeting with his subordinate officers and so he could not be informed, he said.
The bench said the reason to summon the senior police officer was to “put him on notice” since his order of detention shook its conscience. It reserved the orders on the plea filed by Varsha Sharma (the realtor’s daughter) seeking four weeks emergency leave for her dad.