CHENNAI: Almost seven years after Chennai Police registered a case of rioting and assault against four residents of Chitlapakkam near Tambaram for questioning a storm water drain project, the Madras High Court on April 4 quashed the case against them. Justice GK Ilanthiraiyan said that the allegations raised against the four residents were trivial, even if taken at face value.
On October 21, 2018, the Chitlapakkam police arrested R Balachander and Kumara Subramanian in a case where Sunil Jayaraman and Sivakumar were also the accused. The police booked them for deterring officials from discharging their duty and threatening them.
However, the residents, part of a citizen group Chitlapakkam Rising, said the adverse action was because they questioned a cut-and-cover drain project in the locality which was started before tenders were finalised. Curiously, Sunil was in the US at the time when the alleged incident took place.
Balachander and Kumar were in jail for a week. The four had filed a case before the Madras High Court seeking quashing of the trial.
Seeking information regarding alleged irregularities in a public project was not a criminal offense, the court said. “It is clear that allegations of disturbing the de facto complainant (local body) while discharging official duties lack sufficient merit, particularly in light of the broader public concern regarding the project in question,” the order stated.
In addition, the trial had been moving at a slow pace since 2018 which strengthened the case for quashing the proceedings. Based on this, the court order quashed the proceedings against the petitioners in the criminal case pending before the Judicial Magistrate-II, Tambaram.