MADURAI
Deputy Superintendent of Police I. Kader Batcha has filed an anticipatory bail application in the Madras High Court Bench here in a case registered him on charges of stealing valuable ancient idols during his stint as Inspector in the Idol Wing - Criminal Investigation Department in 2008, and claimed that he had in fact solved many idol theft cases despite being a Muslim.
“I state that though I am a Muslim, I have been very sincerely conducted (sic) number of investigations and caught hold of the important culprits who are the main causes for smuggling the idols. I further submit that during the course of the investigations, I had risked my life for the purpose of preventing the smuggling of idols to foreign countries,” his petition read.
Pointing out that the theft case had been registered against him after about nine years since the alleged occurrence took place, he claimed that it was the result of an anonymous complaint sent by a former police officer, who could have been inimical against him due to professional rivalry and jealousy, to the head of the Economic Offences Wing on November 25, 2016.
Though the EOW officials had found prima facie substance in the complaint on the basis of a preliminary enquiry conducted by them, the petitioner said he had been implicated on the basis of a statement given by international idol smuggler Deenadayalan and “without taking into consideration my efficient, sincere and honest service for more than 30 years.”
Curiously, the petitioner, now working as DSP in Tiruvallur district and having residence at Kilpauk in Chennai, had filed the petition seeking advance bail in the Madurai Bench in a case booked by the Inspector of Idol Wing CID in Chennai by claiming to have temporarily come down to Madurai.
He had been booked under Sections 392 (robbery), read with 397 (robbery with attempt to cause death or grievous hurt), 331 (causing grievous hurt to extort confession), 168 (public servant engaging in trade unlawfully), 506 (criminal intimidation), 348 (wrongful confinement to extort confession) and 468 (forgery) of the IPC, read with Section 5 of the Antiquities and Art Treasures Act, 1972.
The other penal provisions invoked against him were Section 166-A (public servant disobeying directions under law) of the IPC, read with Section 27 of the Arms Act, 1959, in a First Information Report registered on February 7.
