Magistrate summoned for letting accused go despite High Court orders

Allowing a contempt plea moved in this regard, the Vacation Bench comprising Justice S Vaidyanathan and Justice PT Asha on Thursday, said “The concerned Metropolitan Magistrate, Egmore, Chennai, who is responsible for the release of the accused persons on December 24, 2018 and the Jail superintendent, Saidapet Sub-Jail are directed to appear before this court along with all original records, including ‘A’ diary with respect to the case in question on December 28 at 2.15 pm.”

The case relates to the death of woman advocate Sunanda Suren, who was knocked from her bike on Spur Tank Road by a speeding car reportedly driven by a college student along with his friends who were all in an inebriated condition. While the accident happened on October 16 she succumbed to injuries on October 23.

Following this, her husband TRG Surender Nair moved a plea pointing out that the police were failing to act earnestly in a bid to favour the accused and that the bail was granted to the accused, which would provide ample scope to the accused to tamper with the evidence. Based on this, the High Court granted stay of the bail orders in all further proceedings pursuant thereto.

But even though the Metropolitan Magistrate was informed about the stay orders passed by the High Court, the XIII M M Egmore Gopinath proceeded to issue bail bonds and release orders to the prison authority, the plea said.

Noting that the act of the Magistrate in enlarging the accused even after coming to know about the stay orders passed by the High Court amounts to contempt of court, the victim’s husband sought for a direction to the Assistant Commissioner, Traffic Investigation Wing to re-arrest the first accused Karan of Sivagangai pending disposal of the contempt petition.