Ponn Manickavel files petition against top officials, accusing them of contempt

Accuses Chief Secretary, DGP and ‘senior Minister’ of meddling with inquiries.

A.G. Ponn Manickavel.

Days after the Madras High Court dissolved a special Division Bench of Justices R. Mahadevan and P.D. Audikesavalu, tasked with hearing all idol theft-related cases, the court-appointed special officer and retired Inspector General of Police A.G. Ponn Manickavel filed a contempt of court petition against a host of government officials on Monday, necessitating the reconstitution of the same bench to hear the plea.

As per court procedure, contempt petitions get listed only before the judges whose orders have reportedly been violated. It is only when the judges concerned had been transferred or were not available in station or had retired from service that the contempt petitions would be heard by other judges. The special officer’s contempt plea is expected to be heard by the special Division Bench since both the judges are currently available in Chennai.

The contempt petition was filed against Chief Secretary Girija Vaidyanathan, Home Secretary Niranjan Mardi, Director General of Police (DGP) T.K. Rajendran and Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Abhay Kumar Singh, heading the Idol Wing- Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

In an affidavit filed in support of his petition, Mr. Manickavel said the court had appointed him as a special officer to continue the investigations into all idol theft cases in the State, just hours after he retired from service on November 30. Subsequently, the Supreme Court confirmed his appointment, and he was given the liberty to form his own special investigation team. Accordingly, the team under his command consisted of four Additional Superintendents of Police, 12 Deputy Superintendents of Police, 17 Inspectors and 47 Sub Inspectors.

‘Ulterior motive’

However, on May 31, the government created a new post of Superintendent of Police and appointed a woman IPS officer to the post “without any request from me. She has been appointed with an ulterior motive to meddle with the course of the investigation”, he alleged. The special officer also alleged excessive interference by the ADGP into the investigations conducted by him on various idol theft cases by way of seeking details of even the plan of action and statements of the accused and witnesses. “The DGP and the ADGP are keen to ensure that the details of the investigation...are disclosed to them so that they could apprise the powers that be of the details of the investigation and thereby derail the course of the investigation,” he alleged.

Noting that the court had appointed him as a special officer only to prevent political and bureaucratic interference in the investigations, he said a senior Minister and the DGP were sneaking into the investigations, thereby defeating the very purpose of the constitution of the special investigation team. “This amounts to gross disobedience of the orders passed by this honourable court,” he said.