Madurai
After certain allegations were made against a Special Public Prosecutor for the Madurai Special Court under the Essential Commodities and Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Tuesday restrained him from discharging his duties as SPP.
The court was hearing the petition filed by advocate B. Pandiarajan of Madurai. He said that he regularly appears before the Special Court. He complained that Special Public Prosecutor P. Seetharaman was not performing his duties properly and this resulted in many accused in NDPS cases to walk free. The petitioner sought action be taken against the SPP.
A Division Bench of Justices N. Kirubakaran and B. Pugalendhi taking cognisance of the submission observed that it was alleged that the SPP would get final reports from the police and not file them on time before the court in order to enable the accused to get statutory bail for extraneous considerations.
In one particular case, the court had taken a serious view of the SPP’s conduct and had recorded his undertaking that he would ensure that the final reports would be filed on time. However, he has continued to repeat the same and has not changed his attitude, the court observed.
Taking note of the fact that in 43 NDPS cases, the accused were granted statutory bail as the final report was not filed on time, the court said that prima facie the SPP was not discharging his duty properly and therefore should be restrained from continuing.
The court directed the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption to look into the details of the wealth amassed by him and his family members and file a report before the court.
“This is only one instance. We do not know how many such people are functioning like this”, the court said.
