CHENNAI: A division bench of the Madras High Court on Wednesday quashed the orders dated July 17 of The Nilgiris Collector, detaining five persons working in Kodanadu estate of the late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, under the Goondas Act.
Their representations were not considered by the detaining authority within the time frame stipulated in the rules. This vitiated their detention, a bench of Justices Rajiv Shakdher and N Sathish Kumar said and accordingly quashed the detention orders.
The five who were detained were Udayan, Satheesan, Tippu, Jamshed Ali and Manoj. According to prosecution, the estate watchman Om Bahadur was brutally attacked and killed on April 24, 2017. Of the two accused, Jayalalithaa’s former car driver Kanakaraj, the first accused, died in a road accident and Shiyan, the second accused, who also met with a similar accident, however, survived the injuries. Later, on release from hospital, he was arrested.
The five were arrested on different dates in May last and were under judicial custody. While so, on July 17, The Nilgiris Collector passed the order detaining them under the Goondas Act. Their family members had filed the present HCPs in High Court assailing their detention, which were allowed.