CHENNAI: A police inspector was allegedly manhandled by a group of advocates on the Madras High Court campus on Monday and was “rescued” after nearly two hours from the chambers of the government pleaders by a police team.
Inspector Munisekar, attached to the Kolathur station, was on the High Court campus to appear in a habeus corpus petition. “One advocate K Nagarajan restrained me as I was walking past the NDFS court hall and suddenly a group of advocates surrounded me. Nagarajan claimed that I had bad-mouthed advocates and the group started abusing me,” Munisekar said.He said he finally managed to enter the government pleader’s section and had to stay inside for nearly two hours fearing for his safety.
“The inspector and the advocate (Nagarajan) already had some previous enmity in a case reported in 2016. However, the advocate was going to take the inspector to the judge and raise a complaint about the previous incident, but senior police officers intervened and rescued the inspector,” said G Mohanakrishnan, president, Madras High Court Advocates Association (MHAA).
Meanwhile, the inspector circulated a message in social media claiming he was surrounded by around 60 advocates and was kept hostage in a government pleader’s room. The incident was witnessed by many who were taking videos and pictures of the incident which were later posted on social networking sites. The videos showed an advocate pulling the inspector forcibly while hurling invectives on him. Dozens of advocates were seen surrounding the inspector.
Advocate Nagarajan in September filed a private complaint against Munisekar that the police officer illegally detained and assaulted him when he was travelling at the Koyambedu bus terminus. Nagarajan had claimed that he was ill-treated since he had filmed Munisekar manhandling a person with disability and a woman at the bus terminus. The case is pending before a magistrate court.Senior police officers visited the court campus on Monday after the information about Munisekar’s “detention” spread.
Later, Nagarajan filed a complaint with the HC police station and Munisekar said he would also file a compliant against Nagarajan. However, its not clear if any FIR was registered over the incident.