The Madras High Court Bench here on Monday stayed the operation of an order passed by Madurai Principal District and Sessions Court on January 23 refusing to discharge Superintendent of Police M. Manohar from a criminal case registered against him in 2009 on charges of assaulting AIADMK MLA R. Samy representing Melur constituency.
Justice Aruna Jagadeesan granted the interim stay for a period of two weeks following a criminal revision petition filed by Mr. Manohar, now posted as SP, Coastal Security Group, Nagapattinam. He had allegedly assaulted the MLA while serving as SP of Madurai district during the campaign for Parliamentary elections in December 2008.
Then, the MLA had lodged a private compliant with the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) here accusing the SP of having violated human rights. It led to registration of a case against the SP under Section 294b (uttering obscene words), 341 (wrongful restraint), 323 (causing hurt voluntarily), 342 (wrongful confinement) and 506 part II (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.
Last year, the SP moved an application before the Principal District and Sessions Court to discharge him from the case as the complaint had been lodged with the CJM and not the jurisdictional judicial magistrate as required under the Code of Criminal Procedure. He further pointed out that the complaint was lodged after a delay of three months since the alleged occurrence.
The Sessions Court dismissed the plea for discharge by observing that a prima facie case had been made out against the SP and therefore he has to face trial. Attacking the decision in the present revision petition, the SP said that the Sessions Court had failed to take note of the fact that discharge of official duty would not amount to abuse of power.
