The Chennai city cyber crime police, on Wednesday, arrested former Calcutta High Court judge Justice C.S. Karnan for uploading a video containing derogatory remarks against the Supreme Court judges and judicial staff. He was arrested from his house in Avadi near Chennai.
The division bench of Madras High Court had earlier directed the DGP and the city police commissioner to appear in person and explain why Karnan has not been arrested. The former justice was interrogated on November 26 by officials of cyber crime department in Chennai. Following the interrogation, a fresh case was registered against him under Sections 228, 509, 294(b), 506 (ii) read with 120-B of IPC and 67 (A) of Information Technology Act for making derogatory and abusive remarks against serving and former judges.
While this case was registered based on a complaint by C. Rajakumar, secretary of Tamil Nadu Bar Council, earlier, another case was registered against him under Sections 295 and 153 of IPC for releasing videos containing sexual remarks against Supreme Court and High Court judges.
Two days ago, the Madras High Court had summoned the DGP and the Chennai city police commissioner to physically appear before it on December 7, while expressing dissatisfaction over the police failing to act against Karnan. The High Court said, “If a preventive action would have been taken at an appropriate time, videos numbering 33, would not have been uploaded by Karnan.”
While hearing the case, the bench comprising of justices M. Sathyanarayanan and R. Hemalatha observed that earlier this year, Justice M. Dhandhapani of the Madras High Court had passed orders for setting up special cells by the police to track social media abusers and asked the police why it has not been set up.
Karnan had served as a judge of the Madras and Calcutta High Courts, before he was held guilty of contempt of court by the Supreme Court for making allegations against the judges of the apex court. He was sentenced to six months in prison and was released from jail in December 2017.