The Madras High Court on Monday granted interim bail to Subbiah Shanmugam, former national president of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), in a case booked against him for having urinated outside the door of his woman neighbour following a dispute over vehicle parking space.
Justice G. Jayachandran said that he found “patent error” in the arrest of the petitioner, who was a surgical oncologist in government service, leading to violation of his fundamental rights and that the error had been committed with an “ulterior motive” to take department action and place him under suspension.
Since the arrest itself was erroneous, it would not give any ground for initiating departmental action against the petitioner, the judge observed and ordered his release on executing a bond for ₹25,000 to the satisfaction of Chengalpattu prison superintendent.
Taking exception to the petitioner having been arrested on a weekend so that he could not obtain bail and consequently get suspended from service for being in prison for over 48 hours, the judges directed the police to explain on Thursday the necessity for having arrested him on Saturday in a 20-month-old case.
“Learned Additional Public Prosecutor requests time to file counter and this court is also eager to know what prompted the investigating officer to arrest a person on a public holiday based on a complaint given one-and-a-half years ago, the matter may be listed on March 24,” the judge wrote.
In his submissions, the petitioner’s counsel R.C. Paul Kanagaraj told the court that the tiff between the surgeon and his neighbour had ended in a compromise long ago. After 20 months, the police had altered the provisions of the First Information Report (FIR) and arrested him due to ulterior motive.
Pointing out that the petitioner, who was the head of the Department of Surgical Oncology in Kilpauk Medical College, was already under suspension for another charge, the counsel said that the suspension had been challenged in the High Court by way of a writ petition and it was likely to be allowed. Hence, the police had intentionally arrested the petitioner in the criminal case so that he could be kept in prison for 48 hours leading to deemed suspension under the service rules, he alleged.
