The Tirupur Superintendent of Police and her subordinates who were involved in the arrest of S Thangaraj, the then Judicial Magistrate, Coonoor, are to appear before the Madras HC on March 12. An order to this effect was passed by the first bench of Acting Chief Justice SK Agnihotri and Justice MM Sundresh, when the suo motu contempt proceedings came up before it, on Monday. SP R Ponni, DSPs C Pitchai and Suresh Kumar and other police personnel are to appear before the court in the next hearing on March 12.
The judicial magistrate was arrested by the police based on a complaint from a woman sub-inspector, who claimed that they were known to each other for more than a year and developed intimacy when Thangaraj was a practising advocate. She alleged that after being appointed as a magistrate, he avoided her and married another woman. She claimed Thangaraj had sexual relationship with her.
Initiating contempt proceedings against the police officers in July last year, the court observed that they had scant respect and regard for the gui-delines fra-med by the apex court.