The Madras High Court Bench here on Tuesday decided to re-hear a case filed by a Tuticorin-based private school teacher for a directive to the Sathankulam police to register a First Information Report against Tourism Minister S.P. Shunmuganathan for allegedly abusing and intimidating him in public on November 9.
On Monday, Justice S. Vaidyanathan closed the case after recording the submission of the police that they conducted a ‘petition inquiry’ and found that no cognisable offence had been made out against the Minister.
However, on Tuesday, the judge decided to re-hear the matter on Thursday after the lawyer for the petitioner said the police had misled the court.
Senior counsel M. Ajmal Khan said his client had approached the police station on the day of the incident itself. But the Station House Officer refused to receive the complaint.
His attempt to meet the Superintendent of Police on November 12 failed, and hence he sent the complaint by registered post on December 1.
Summoned for inquiryOn December 5, he filed a petition in the High Court for a directive to register the FIR. The very next day, the police summoned him to appear for an inquiry on December 9 (Wednesday). However, when the case came up on Tuesday (December 8), they informed the court that an inquiry was conducted, and the matter was closed.
“It is surprising that the police closed the inquiry on December 8 after having summoned me for the inquiry on December 9. A closure report has been prepared hurriedly and presented before the court to avoid a directive to register an FIR under Sections 294b (abusing) and 506 part II (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code,” counsel said.
In his petition, the teacher said the relationship between him and his wife, also a schoolteacher, ended in a divorce because of her illegal intimacy with the Minister who abused and threatened him at the Sathankulam new bus stand.
