Madras HC orders CB-CID probe to protect mentally challenged man

Chennai: The tragic and cruel manipulations of a mentally challenged person by a woman, who had divorced him six years ago and ‘married’ him again a few months ago only to grab his huge wealth, have been referred to crime branch CID probe by the Madras high court in a landmark pronouncement steeped in deep humanism.

“The fact of the case at hand read like a Sydney Sheldon narrative”, wrote Justice P.N. Prakash in his verdict on Tuesday.

Indeed it was such a riveting story of startlingly disgusting human greed, if one goes by the narrative of the case that unfolded in the course of the hearing that had begun in May this year, following a petition from N. Ananthan, guardian for mentally challenged Manoj Rajan (37).

The gory tale began with the alleged abduction of Manoj from the ‘Charity Home for the Mentally Retarded’ at Gudalur by ex-wife R. Priyadarshini accompanied by her father, sister, sister’s lover, plus a group of lawyers, on May 4 this year.

Priyadarshini had married 29-year-old Manoj in September 2008 at Chennai. She left him a year later to return to her parents and filed for divorce alleging that she was cheated into the marriage by father-in-law E J Rajan concealing the fact that his son was born mute and “has serious mental disorder and suffering with serious mental illness for so many years”.

The court granted divorce ‘on mutual consent’ and had even awarded one-time alimony of Rs.4 lakh, which was paid by Rajan, who had brought up his mentally challenged son all by himself after wife Lissie passed away in 1993 leaving behind their only son, then just 14.

When Rajan died in December 2013, Manoj came under the care of his auditor-friend Ananthan as per his written will. The wealthy man had also left behind huge property, including land and buildings in Chennai, Sriperambudur and Tirumizhisai. Guardian Ananthan admitted Rajan in the Gudalur charity home the following year and visited him regularly to ensure comfortable care.

On May 4 this year, the Home lodged a complaint with the Gudalur police that Priyadarshini stormed into the place with some people and forcibly took away Manoj. Strangely, the police did not register FIR and only made a CSR entry-CSR is ‘Community Service Register’ maintained in police stations to record non-cognizable offence; when the offence is cognizable, then a First Information Report (FIR) is registered. 

Alarmed by the police laxity, Ananthan petitioned Chief Minister’s Cell the next day and moved the high court.

After a patient research of the ‘Sydney Sheldon’ kind of case brought before him, Justice Prakash decided that the court must assume the role of ‘loco parentis’ (guardian) for Manoj and his properties, holding that petitioner Ananthan’s apprehension that there is imminent threat to the very life of Manoj “cannot be lightly dismissed”.

To protect the mentally challenged man and his properties, the court would have to take “certain protective measures”, though they may appear to be outside the scope of the powers under the Cr.P.C.; besides, extraordinary cases demand extraordinary remedies.

The judge’s alacrity and concern appear to stem from the events starting from the alleged abduction of Manoj from the Gudalur Home. While the local police station kept mum on the Home’s complaint, Priyadarshini got a pastor to conduct her ‘quick-fix’ marriage with Manoj at Royapuram (Chennai) on May 6 and got the marriage registered by the local Sub-Registrar.

The same day, she took Rs 40 lakh as advance for the sale of his Tirumazhisai property. She took a second advance of Rs 50 lakh a week later and finally registered the sale for a price of Rs 1.67 crore to one Rajeswari at the Sub-Registrar, Poonamallee on June 1.

The entire sale transaction, including the payment of advance amounts, was by cash, which Justice Prakash pointed out was violation of law as any payment of over Rs 20,000 should be done only by cheque.

Also, the conduct of the Gudalur police, the Sub-Registrars at Royapuram and Poonamallee and Pastor John Amalraj deserved investigation, said the judge while ordering the transfer of the case to the Crime Branch CID police. He fixed August 24 as the date for CB-CID to file status report.

The humane judge also ordered that Manoj be transferred to “a very secure and recognised Home”, Gnanadeepam situated in Madurai. He wanted the local police to ensure his protection and the Home to assess the mental faculties of Manoj and report.

In an effort to insulate Manoj’s properties from fraudulent sale, the judge also ordered the jurisdictional sub-registrars to desist from registering any transactions unless cleared by the court.

At the end of the Sydney Sheldon kind of narrative, there is one poignant point-would someone shed a tear for Manoj, who is perhaps completely oblivious of all that happened around him, since poor Lissie brought him out of her womb 37 years ago.