The Director General of Police on Tuesday complained to the Madras High Court that the Tamil Nadu unit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had made multiple attempts to take out the ‘Vetrivel Yatra’ despite refusal of permission by the police and a case pending in the court.
Omnibus order
Appearing before a Division Bench of Justices M. Sathyanarayanan and R. Hemalatha, Advocate General Vijay Narayan said it was not fair on the part of a State unit of a political party, ruling in the Centre, to take law into its hands and violate the canons of law. The A-G said the DGP had made it very clear to the party that he could not grant an omnibus order permitting it to go on a month-long Statewide Yatra. The officer had also instructed the party leaders to approach individual Superintendents or Commissioners of Police seeking permission.
On November 2, BJP State general secretary K. Nagarajan made an application to the Greater Chennai Commissioner of Police seeking permission for the Yatra. The Commissioner rejected permission on November 5. Yet, BJP State president L. Murugan took out the Yatra from his residence at Koyambedu. About 250 cadres followed him in 100 vehicles.
The participants were holding party flags and not maintaining physical distance. They travelled ahead despite warnings issued by the police asking them to disperse. The city police had no option but to register a case against Mr. Murugan, the party's national general secretary H. Raja and others. The participants were intercepted again at Nazarathpet and 19 of them were arrested.
Flouted rules
The sequence of events would show that the BJP cadres violated the Police Commissioner's orders and acted in a manner prejudicial to public health when the whole world was facing the threat of COVID-19, the AG said. He said the partymen indulged in similar violations in Tiruttani despite rejection orders passed by Tiruvallur Superintendent of Police.
Mr. Narayan said a majority of the participants did not wear masks and some of them prevented the police from discharging their duties. “This was not just a temple visit. The cars moved in 10 km speed and the BJP president was waving to the crowd. Your Lordships will be totally shocked to see the videos," the A-G told the court and opposed grant of interim orders.
He pointed out that after Mr. Nagarajan had moved an urgent writ petition in the court on Saturday seeking permission for the Yatra, the Krishnagiri Superintendent of Police too had passed orders on Monday rejecting permission for it in Hosur. “The rejection order has been served on them today,” he said and pointed out that cases had been booked against former Union Minister Pon. Radhakrishnan and former Member of Parliament C.P. Radhakrishnan too. After hearing him at length, the judges desisted from granting any interim relief to the petitioner but for liberty to challenge the rejection orders.
They also observed that the police were duty bound to apply the COVID-19 protocols to all events irrespective of the organisers. They further granted time for the DGP to file a counter affidavit to the writ petition and adjourned it to December 2.
