CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Tuesday dismissed two petitions filed by Rajesh Das, former special Director General of Police, seeking suspension of a three-year prison sentence awarded to him in a sexual harassment case and exemption from surrendering in court in the case.
Justice M Dhandapani, who dismissed the petitions, said the petitioner was holding a high office in the police force, which is a disciplined force in which persons holding even lower ranks were required to exhibit highest level of discipline and integrity.
“It would not be in the interest of justice if this court grants suspension of sentence, considering the fact that the petitioner was not a novice and he was holding the post of DGP. A person of that stature, coming from a disciplined force, ought to conduct himself in a proper manner,” the judge said.
“Das’ action has degraded the morale of police force”
“But the action of the petitioner has degraded the morale of the police force,” the judge said.
Justice Dhandapani said in cases involving outraging the modesty of women or behaving indecently with them, the courts should be very circumspect while granting suspension of sentence to the accused who was held guilty through concurrent judgments of lower courts.
Das was convicted and sentenced to three years of rigorous imprisonment by a Chief Judicial Magistrate in Villupuram in June 2023 for sexually harassing a woman IPS officer in February 2021. The incident happened when the two were travelling together in a vehicle while on duty to provide security to the then Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami.
Das went on appeal against the verdict before the Villupuram Principal District Court, which dismissed his plea and confirmed the conviction as well as the sentence in February this year.
While staying away from surrendering himself in the court, Das had filed a criminal revision petition in the Madras High Court challenging the verdict of the two courts. During the pendency of this petition, he filed two criminal miscellaneous petitions, which were dismissed on Tuesday.
Referring to the alleged inconsistencies and contradictions in the evidence in the case pointed out by Das’s counsel, the judge said those arguments were not sufficient enough to consider the plea for suspension of sentence. They could be taken into consideration when the main revision petition challenging the conviction and the sentence imposed by the lower courts is heard, the judge said.
Since Das had failed to surrender, an arrest warrant was issued by the trial court on March 8.