High drama prevailed in the corridor of the first judicial magistrate court here on Monday after the police tried to take custody of cartoonist G. Bala alias Balakrishnan after he was granted bail in the case pertaining to alleged demeaning of the Chief Minister, the Collector and the City Police Commissioner through his cartoon that depicted the immolation on the Collectorate by a suspected usury victim.
When Mr. Bala was produced in the court around 10.45 a.m., the first judicial magistrate M. Ramadoss granted him bail based on two sureties. Even as the formalities associated with fulfilling the condition of the bail were going on, Inspector of Police Anita Arockiya Mary tried to take custody of the cartoonist even as he was standing along with his advocates on the corridor.
As the advocates resisted the attempt, she told the lawyers that she had to take him to the office for interrogation. Alleging that the police were trying to arrest Mr. Bala based on a fresh complaint possibly from the senior police officer, the lawyers resisted it, leading to commotion on the corridor.
On hearing the melee, the judicial magistrate came out and asked the lawyers to bring Mr. Bala inside the court.
“Even after the court had granted the bail, the police tried to forcibly take custody of Mr. Bala, which is illegal. We, the advocates, thwarted the attempt. The Tamil Nadu government, the Collector and the Superintendent of Police owe an explanation on this violation as the police officer’s act has challenged the court,” S. Vanchinathan, counsel of Mr. Bala claimed.
Fresh complaint
Advocate Ramesh of Communist Party of India (ML) said the police tried to “abduct” Mr. Bala even before the sureties could be executed in the court as part of the bail process. “The police tried to remand Mr. Bala after getting a new complaint, and hence, we took him inside the court hall after thwarting the police’s attempt,” Mr. Ramesh said.
Since the advocates suspected that the police’s attempt to arrest Mr. Bala based on a fresh complaint would continue, they took him to the ‘advocates’ room’ where the police are not allowed to enter. After keeping him for a while, the advocates escorted him out of the court premises to speak to the media.
Mr. Bala said that he was not harassed even when he was being brought to Tirunelveli from Chennai by road on Sunday night.
“After receiving the complaint from the Collector on November 1, the police started following me. I received a phone call from a lady, who introduced herself as my fan and wanted to meet me. I could sense that the call was from a police officer. When the police arrested me, I was not allowed to contact my advocate. As all their attempts to keep me behind the bars at least for two days have failed miserably, they are desperately trying to arrest me again by getting a fresh complaint lodged,” Mr. Bala said before leaving the court complex.
