HC pulls up RDO, orders probe into assault on teacher

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, MARCH. 31. An officer who served as RDO in Mayiladuthurai in August 1998, has been criticised severely by the Madras High Court for beating up a Chennai college teacher.

Directing the State police to continue the probe against the RDO, Mr. Justice M. Karpagavinayagam, in an order passed recently, said ``It is clear that the RDO crossed his limit and illegally exercised his powers causing serious prejudice to the personal liberty (of the teacher).'' The teacher alleged that the RDO and other officers picked him up from a house at night and illegally detained and tortured him to sign papers as if he had given false information about teakwood smuggling. The academic's pleas to higher officials for action against the officers were to no avail.

The judge was allowing a petition filed by Mr. K.V. Rajendran, senior lecturer in Physics, Presidency College, seeking a direction to the Nagapattinam police to register a case on his complaint against the RDO, Mr. Karunakaran and others.

According to Mr. Rajendran, on August 26, 1998, the RDO got information about teakwood smuggling. The informant identified himself as an English newspaper journalist and warned the RDO that he would report the matter if no action was taken.

Mr. Karunakaran along with policemen, visited the lecturer's house at Perumalpet at Tharangapadi village (where he had gone on a holiday) at around 11 p.m. on August 26, 1998. They woke up Mr. Rajendran and without giving any reason, took him away in a jeep. He was beaten up in the vehicle and at the Taluk office, after having been questioned whether he gave the information. He was brutally beaten up by the RDO and others, forced to sign blank papers, chained and later remanded. After two days he was released on bail.

The court directed the production of a confidential inquiry report submitted by a DSP of the SB CID, which stated that the allegations of the lecturer were mostly true. Rejecting the RDO's contentions to the contrary, Mr. Justice Karpagavinayagam said even if he had a genuine suspicion about the teacher, he had no business to take the latter forcibly under the garb of enquiry. The law did not authorise the RDO to take a person from his house for enquiry. He must have done it through the proper channel. Recording the events which occurred, the judge said that from the beginning, the police and revenue officials had helped the RDO in denying the incidents. Mr. Justice Karpagavinayagam said the police failed to perform their duty in conducting an inquiry following Mr.Rajendran's complaint. In the light of the pathetic and pitiable situation, the judiciary could not keep quiet. It had to intervene when human dignity was wounded.

The government officials should be sensitised to the values of human dignity, he said and directed the police to continue the enquiry and take action against the officers as per the law. However, he rejected a plea for a CBI inquiry into the episode.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Southern States
Previous : 'AIADMK only option for secular parties'
Next     : Al-Umma prisoners threaten fast