On Wednesday, October 27, the Madras High Court rejected a plea to transfer a case of sexual harassment against a suspended special Director General of Police (DGP), The Hindu reported. The plea was made by the suspended DGP to transfer the case from the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate in Villipuram, questioning the latter's territorial jurisdiction. The accused sought that the trial be held at the judicial magistrate court at the place where the alleged crime occurred. The suspended officer is accused of sexually harassing a woman police official in February 2021.
Judge P Velmurugan dismissed the plea and ordered that the trial be completed within three months. The charge sheet against the suspended official was filed in July before the Villipuram CJM's court. It also includes the names of other police officials who tried to stop the woman from making a complaint.
A probe was initiated in February by the CB-CID soon after the woman official lodged her complaint. They found evidence against the accused and asked the state for permission to prosecute the Special DGP. Following this, a case was registered under Sections 354 A (sexual harassment), 506 (1) (criminal intimidation) and 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 4 of the Prohibition of Harassment of Women Act. The accused was suspended from his post.
In February, the suspended official had allegedly asked the woman official to accompany him in his car after duty one day in Trichy and Pudukottai, and then allegedly sexually harassed her in Karur. The woman said in her complaint that other police officials tried to stop her from making the complaint and threatened her Personal Security Officer.
Another woman IPS official was sexually harassed in Tamil Nadu in August 2018. A woman Superintendent of Police accused IPS official S Murugan of sexually harassing her. Murugan was transferred after that to a non-election post ahead of elections.