Justice N. Sathish Kumar of the Madras High Court on Tuesday wondered why the State government was highly interested in getting cancelled, the bail granted to Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MP R.S. Bharathi in an SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act case when there were a host of other issues to be worried about during the times of a pandemic.
He raised the question during the hearing of an appeal preferred by the Central Crime Branch (CCB), attached to Greater Chennai police, for cancelling the bail granted to the MP by a special court in Chennai on June 1 in a case booked against him under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act of 1989.
When an Additional Public Prosecutor contended that the threat of COVID-19 was one of the prime grounds on which the special court had granted bail and that taking such issues into consideration would lead to lawlessness in the State, the judge asked whether the State had been showing similar interest in other criminal cases also.
He said if the prosecution was so confident that a clear case had been made out against the accused under the SC/ST Act, then it could very well complete the investigation at the earliest, file a charge sheet and take steps to commence the trial. In reply, the APP said, the bail granted in the present case should not become a precedent.
Hence, the judge ordered notice to the MP on CCB’s appeal and adjourned the case to Friday for further hearing.
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