Police castigated for booking ‘whistleblowers’ Chennai, July 26 (PTI): The Madras High Court has unleashed a scathing attack on the investigating agency, in this case the police in Coimbatore city, for registering various cases and FIRs against a person, said to be a journalist and arresting him, even under the Goondas Act.

Police castigated for booking ‘whistleblowers’

Chennai, July 26 (PTI): The Madras High Court has unleashed a scathing attack on the investigating agency, in this case the police in Coimbatore city, for registering various cases and FIRs against a person, said to be a journalist and arresting him, even under the Goondas Act.

“For the illegal affairs, as is being brought to the eyes of the common man by such of those whistleblowers, the law enforcing agency should take steps to apprehend such persons, who are corrupt and not go after the persons, who bring to light such illegal acts,” Justice M Dhandapani.

It is high time that the higher echelons in the law enforcing department take up the matter seriously and keep a continual watch on the performance of their subordinates so that the law enforcing agency acts within the rule of law and for the betterment of the citizens and the society, the judge added.

The judge was allowing a batch of more than 25 criminal original petitions filed from 2017 from V Anbazhagan and his wife challenging the FIRs registered against him, the arrests, even under the Goondas Act.

The charge against Anhazhagan was that he had threatened the respective complainants that he will publish scandalous materials against them in the daily “Ullatchi Alasal”, if they fail to accede to his demand for payment of ransom money, in some cases as a lump sum and in some other cases as lump sum and also monthly payments.

After going through the materials and listening to the arguments of both the parties, the judge found that the charges against the petitioner were not proved. The counters filed by the prosecution were mere `pieces of papers’, filed just to fulfill the mandatory requirement. Holding that the FIRs as also the respective cases on the file of the concerned Magistrates are wholly unsustainable and do not stand the test of legal scrutiny and that they deserve to be set aside, the judge set aside all the FIRs registered by the Ukkadam police and the cases pending before the respective Magistrates.

The judge further observed that the law enforcing agency is for the purpose of safeguarding the citizens, who lead their life according to the rule of law and it is not for the purpose of safeguarding such of those individuals, who, with least respect and regard to the rule of law, flaunt their powers in an illegal manner to enrich themselves and their corrupt acts are flashed by the whistleblowers in the society.

“It is to be pointed out that corruption has got itself deeply rooted in our day-to-day life that without the aid of corruption, even the day-to-day affairs are not being discharged by the officials, who block and clog the functioning and the image of the governmental machinery in the eyes of the common man. Such being the affairs, as is being brought to the eyes of the common man by such of those whistleblowers, the law enforcing agency should take steps to apprehend such persons, who are corrupt and not go after the persons, who bring to light such illegal acts”, the judge added.

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