Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members should be grateful to the Kanathur police for having recently removed a 55-feet tall flag pole outside the residence of its State president K. Annamalai in Chennai since it would have otherwise damaged the underground sewerage line and let the sewage flow into his house, the Madras High Court said on Friday.
Justice C.V. Karthikeyan observed while granting bail to BJP functionary S. Amar Prasad alias Amar Prasad Reddy and five others in a rioting case booked against them for creating trouble when the police removed the flag pole on October 21, 2023. The judge wondered what purpose would it have served in erecting such a tall flag pole.
“I am not able to understand the sense and sensibility of the entire issue. A pole of about 10 feet would be more visible to any common person. If it is a pole of 55 feet, nobody can see to that height. It would actually be to the disadvantage of the persons who erect such a tall flag post,” the judge wrote and said, the foundation ought to have been strong for such a tall flag pole.
“For a 55-feet tall flag pole, any common person would know that the depth should go beyond 5-feet on the ground. It will cut across the underground electric cables. It will cut across the drainage and sewerage pipe line and for all we know, if the respondent had permitted the pole to remain, it would have damaged the sewerage pipe line, which sewerage would have flowed back to the house of the very person in whose front portion the pole was erected,” the judge added.
After recording the submission of Additional Public Prosecutor R. Muniyapparaj that the rioters had damaged the windshield of a vehicle that was hired by the police to remove the flag pole, the judge directed the six petitioners to pay ₹2,000 each as compensation to the vehicle owner besides complying with all regular conditions imposed by the court while granting bail.
The judge also directed the petitioners to appear before the investigating officer everyday for a period of two weeks after their release.
