Former judge of the Madras High Court Justice CS Karnan was arrested by the Tamil Nadu police near Avadi in Chennai on Wednesday, a month after a case was registered against him for an abusive Whatsapp video where he made allegations against judges of the High Court and the Supreme Court. The case was registered after ten women lawyers of the Madras High Court wrote to Chief Justice of India Sharad A Bobde seeking action against the former judge.
According to a report in Bar and Bench, Karnan's lawyer, Peter Ramesh Kumar has stated that the former judge will be produced before Chief Judicial Magistrate in Egmore and that he may be lodged at Puzhal Prison.
Karnan had been booked after his video went viral on social messaging platforms, where he made objectionable comments and even issued threats of sexual violence against judges. The former judge had also alleged that the Supreme Court and High Court judges “sexually assaulted” women staff and had even revealed the names of the alleged survivors.
Following this, ten lawyers — RR Vaigai, Sudha Ramalingam, Anna Mathew, Geeta Ramaseshan, D Nagasaila, D Geeta, S Devika, Akila RS, NS Tanvi and Nivedita Menon — had submitted a letter to the Chief Justice of India seeking action against the judge. They also demanded action against those involved in recording and circulating the video on WhatsApp.
In the letter, the women lawyers requested the Chief Justice of India to instruct the website and social media platforms to take down the video and said that the direct consequence of the video this will lead to “questions on the opaque nature of the judicial appointment and lack of accountability.”
Following this, the Cyber Crime Wing of the Chennai police on October 28 registered a case against Justice Karnan under sections of Indian Penal Code, Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Harassment of Women Act and Information Technology Act. On Wednesday, Former Justice Karnan was arrested by the police in Avadi in Chennai.