Shocked by two former officers of Idol Wing-Criminal Investigation Department (IW-CID) trading serious charges of misfeasance and malfeasance against each other, while investigating idol theft cases involving culture, heritage, faith and emotion of the nation, the Madras High Court on Friday ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe to find out who of the two was speaking the truth.
Justice G. Jayachandran passed the order while allowing a petition filed by former Deputy Superintendent of Police I. Kader Batcha, who was not allowed to retire from service due to charges of having a tacit understanding with idol thieves. The petitioner had accused retired Inspector General of Police (IGP) A.G. Ponn Manickavel of having helped international idol smuggler Subash Chandra Kapoor and his local agent Deenadayalan.
The judge pointed out the service records of the petitioner disclose he was serving as an Inspector of Police since 1998 and got transferred to IW-CID from Tirunelveli Range in 2007. Thereafter, in 2011, he was transferred to Chennai police. During his tenure in the IW-CID, he had received several commendation certificates from his superiors for having recovered over 38 idols and securing eight notorious smugglers.
His records further revealed he had received 329 awards from the police department for his notable work. On the other hand, Mr. Manickavel’s services had been commended by a Division Bench of the Madras High Court and by a single judge at its Madurai Bench. “This court is not sure whether the materials now placed were available before the judges who made the observations about four years ago,” Justice Jayachandran wrote.
In the present case, the petitioner had alleged Mr. Manickavel had falsely implicated him in a 2005 case regarding theft of 13 idols from the Narambunathar Sivan Temple at Palavoor in Tirunelveli by including him as an accused in the case, besides registering a fresh First Information Report (FIR) in 2017. According to the petitioner, he had, in 2008, filed a charge sheet against eight accused, including Deenadayalan in the Palavoor case.
He claimed after taking over as court-appointed special officer to investigate all idol theft cases in the State, Mr. Manickavel, to gain the lens of the media and in collusion with Deenadayalan, began foisting false cases against officials to quench his bureaucratic vengeance. He pointed out that Deenadayalan of Aparna Art Gallery in Chennai was declared approver and granted pardon at the instance of Mr. Manickavel.
According to two additional final reports filed by Mr. Manickavel in the 2005 Palavoor case, it was Subash Kapoor who was the kingpin in the theft of 13 idols from Palavoor. In one of the two additional reports filed in 2017, he had assured the court that every effort would be taken to subject Kapoor to trial in that case. In the meantime, Kapoor was arrested in Germany in 2011 in connection with a 2008 Udayarpalayam idol theft case. He was extradited to India in 2012 and was in prison since then, on being denied bail by the courts.
Contrary to the undertaking given by him to the court in 2017, Mr. Manickavel wrote to the State government in 2019 insisting that Kapoor need not be prosecuted in any other case but for the 2008 Udayarpalayam case. The reasons given by him for such insistence was to maintain smooth bilateral relationship with Germany.
Further, the retired IG also stated that Kapoor had undergone seven out of the maximum imprisonment of 14 years as an undertrial prisoner itself. Not happy with the tenor of the letter written by Mr. Manickavel to the then Home Secretary Niranjan Mardi on June 29, 2019, Justice Jayachandran said it had been written without obtaining State Public Prosecutor’s opinion, and leaves an impression that the petitioner’s allegations against him could not be ignored.
