High Court advocate threatens restaurant employees, arrested

An advocate who used a gun to threaten employees of a restaurant found himself behind bars on Thursday.

The accused, who had an ID card for the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court, S. Madhavan of Anna Nagar, Chennai, had reportedly picked up a quarrel with a server of the restaurant at Kelambakkam at around 11 p.m., for serving a dish he had not ordered, according to the Kelambakkam police.

As the altercation grew, the restaurant manager, Sankaralingam intervened and made the server apologise for the mistake. Not satisfied with this, police said, the advocate demanded that the manager slap the server in front of him.

As the manager refused to concede to this demand, Madhavan threatened Sankaralingam by whipping out his revolver. Thus, the manager and others rushed out of the restaurant, by that time the advocate fired the gun and a bullet had hit a vehicle parked nearby.

Subsequently, the advocate was overpowered by the staff and those at the restaurant. Immediately, the Kelambakkam police were informed about the incident and Madhavan was taken into custody.

The advocate was booked under section 307 of IPC on Thursday and remanded to judicial custody based on a complaint from the restaurant manager, Sankaralingam, police said.