Chennai: Justice C.S. Karnan, retired Calcutta high court judge, who was on the run for 40 days since he vanished from government guest house in Chennai on May 10 was arrested from a private guest house in Malumachampatti in Coimbatore by a West Bengal police team headed by DGP Raj Kanojia. on Tuesday.
A seven-member constitution bench headed by Supreme Court Chief Justice J. S. Khehar, sentenced Karnan, then sitting Calcutta HC judge, for six months imprisonment on May 9 in a contempt case.
"We have arrested him finally. And will be taking him to Kolkata immediately," a relieved Raj Kanojia, who had been hunting for the judge who was on the run for the last 40 days, told this newspaper on Tuesday night.
At Coimbatore airport on Tuesday night Karnan, belonging to Dalit community, told reporters that he was not a terrorist. Though the West Bengal police team members were not ready to disclose the details on how they tracked the judge, who retired on June 12, sources said that the WB police had been tracking him systematically by following his mobile phone signals.
“He was untraceable for some days when he was not using phone and when he was not contacting people from his close circle,” sources said. When contacted his lawyer Mathews J. Nedumpara said that he will be moving Karnan’s bail petition at Supreme Court on Wednesday.
According to sources, though Karnan had vanished on May 10 from Chennai he was holed in the city for some days before moving to Panangad at Kochi in Kerala. However he shifted to a lawyer's house in Namakkal 10 days back and later shifted to a guest house in Malumachampatti in Coimbatore from where the WB police arrested him on Tuesday.
Karnan had earlier moved the top court for the suspension of his sentence and sought review of the May 9 order but he did not get any relief. His plea for review was declined on technical grounds without its coming before the seven judges bench.
His lawyer had repeatedly told apex court the detailed order holding him guilty of contempt was never made available to him after May 9 - something he was entitled to like any other litigant. The delay in the arrest of Karnan, was a saving grace for the judiciary and avoided the scenario of a serving judge of a high court being sent to jail.
