Following Madras High Court’s interim stay on government’s order to transfer all idol theft cases from idol wing CID to the CBI, it directed the Tamil Nadu government on Thursday to produce all the communication and records that transpired between the government and the DGP office.
This order comes following a petition filed by advocate ‘Elephant’ Rajendran, requesting all copies of the communication records be submitted to him. A special bench comprising Justice R Mahadevan and Justice AD Audikesavalu also permitted Rajendran to issue a private notice to the CBI in connection with the case. The plea was posted for further hearing on to September 7.
Advocate ‘Elephant’ Rajendran had filed a petition to quash the order issued by the government for transferring all idol theft cases to the CBI on August 1. The counsel for the petitioner argued that the state government has not cooperated with the idol theft wing for investigation and that the government was in a hurry to transfer the cases to the CBI with an intention to safeguard interested parties.
The State Government on August 1 informed the MHC that it had taken a policy decision to transfer the idol theft cases. According to a report in the Hindu, Additional Advocate General PH Arvindh Pandian told the Division Bench that the decision to transfer the probe to the central agency had been taken to inspire public confidence.
The bench, listening to pleas from both the sides, said that this government order was not fit to exist and asked the government why the same fervour was not shown in issuing orders related to public welfare.
A special wing to investigate idol thefts in Tamil Nadu under the leadership of IG Ponn Manickavel was constituted by the Supreme Court, upholding the High Court’s 2017 order.