About three days after ten lawyers of the Madras High Court wrote to the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sharad A Bobde against retired High Court judge CS Karnan, the Cyber Crime Wing of Chennai police registered a case against him. The news was confirmed by his lawyer Peter Ramesh Kumar. This comes in relation to a video, widely circulated on WhatsApp, in which the retired judge was heard making serious allegations and threats of sexual assault against women and those in the judicial system.

"The Cyber Crime Wing has booked a case against retired Justice Karnan after 10 women lawyers wrote to the Chief Justice of India against him and the apex court asked the advocates to approach the appropriate authorities," Peter told IANS. According to reports, he has been booked under relevant sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC), Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Harassment of Woman Act and Information Technology Act.

In a video that went viral, Justice Karan was heard making objectionable comments and threatening sexual violence against judiciary officials. He also alleged that some Supreme Court and High Court judges have sexually assaulted women staff and named the alleged victims.

Following this, ten women lawyers, including R Vaigai, Sudha Ramalingam, Anna Mathew, Geeta Ramaseshan, D Nagasaila, D Geeta, S Devika, Akila RS, NS Tanvi and Nivedita Menon signed and submitted a letter to the CJI demanding stringent action, including action for criminal prosecution, against the controversial Judge.

“As a first step, we request that i) the website server/social media that is being used to circulate the video should be directed to take down the video forthwith and ii) an investigation into the source of the video, the identity of the persons responsible for recording and uploading it and the time and place of recording, be ordered, based on which further action may be taken,” they had asked in their letter.

It may be recalled that when Karnan was a judge in Calcutta High Court, he was sentenced to six months in jail for contempt of court in 2017 by the Supreme Court. He was arrested by Kolkata police and served his jail term.

(With inputs from IANS)