Idol Wing row: Court warns DGP of contempt

The special bench comprising Justice R Mahadevan and PD Audikesavalu said this while hearing a contempt plea moved by the court-appointed special officer, Ponn Manickavel, to probe idol theft cases in Tamil Nadu.

Alleging that a couple of Ministers and a DGP were interfering in cases in which influential people were involved, Manickavel had contended that the government appointed a woman officer as Superintendent of Police of the wing in a newly created post though there is a bar on making changes in the wing without the court’s consent.

He had also alleged that the many idol theft cases registered in various districts were yet to be transferred to the Idol Wing, and that the case diary of 43 idol theft cases with various SPs were missing.

But, government Pleader V Jayaprakash Narayanan submitted that the State government had not abstained from implementing any of the directions of the court.

Also, citing the plea pending at the Supreme Court regarding Manickavel’s appointment, the government pleader suggested that if the final orders come, the contempt would lie only at the Supreme Court. The State government had hired senior counsel Balaji Sreenivasan to handle the case, the Government pleader informed the court, and sought the bench to adjourn the case. However, the bench set aside the government pleader’s submission that contempt would lie only at theSupreme Court, and held that it has been a year since the directions were offered and it could be seen that it has not been implemented.

But one aspect we want to clarify is that as far as the high court is concerned its sole aim is to protect the Tamil soil its arts and culture,the bench said while adding that it’s not against the bureaucratsand the political rulers.

The counsel appearing for Ponn Manickavel contended that the special officer has not been allowed to function as directed by the court, and that the DGP has been acting contrary to the directions issued by the court.

The HR&CE officials failed to cooperate and the appointment of a woman SP to head the Idol Wing was an attempt to stall the special officer from proceeding with the probe. While directing Ponn Manickavel to file an affidavit on his allegations, the bench led by Justice Mahadevan posted the case for further hearing to November 12.

Advocate ‘Elephant’ Rajendran, on whose case the court appointed the special officer, also agreed to file an affidavit during the next hearing with the names of the two Ministers who were allegedly blocking the investigation.