Justice CS Karnan, the high court judge-turned-fugitive – was arrested by the West Bengal police in Coimbatore on Tuesday evening. He earned the dubious distinction of being the first high court judge to be arrested following a court order.
The arrest brings to an end more than a month long hunt for the judge who went underground after the Supreme Court ordered his imprisonment for six months, holding him guilty of contempt. Once the SC pronounced its order on May 8 Karnan went underground and even retired on June 12 as he completed 62 years.
But a six-member police team from West Bengal led by DGP Raj Kanojia camped in |Chennai and tracked his whereabouts with the help of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh police.
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“We got a tip off about his presence in a house on the out skirts of Coimbatore. Our team scouted the place and on confirmation about his presence we moved in and arrested him around 7 pm today,” Kanojia told Outlook. Peter Ramesh Kumar, the advocate spearheading Karnan’s defence also confirmed his arrest.
The police team is expected to move the former judge to a secret place and fly him to Kolkata tomorrow. “They would need a transit remand to fly him out of Tamil Nadu,” a police officer said.
Despite several attempts, Justice Karnan failed to get any relief from the apex court's vacation benches which refused to hear his plea seeking a stay of its jail term order.
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A seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court had directed Justice Karnan to appear before it on February 13, 2017 to speak out before the apex court initiates contempt charges.
Justice Karnan had said the Contempt of Courts Act was a "cathartic jurisprudence which belonged to the Dark Ages, the era of inquisition and torture, distinct from the classical Roman Law which constitutes the foundation of modern jurisprudence".
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(With agency inputs)