The Madras High Court on Tuesday, April 23, 2024, dismissed a petition filed by former special Director General of Police (DGP) Rajesh Das, seeking exemption from surrendering despite a trial court as well as an appellate court having found him guilty of making sexual advances towards a woman Indian Police Service (IPS) officer and imposing a punishment of three years of rigorous imprisonment.
Justice M. Dhandapani refused to grant exemption to the former top cop from surrendering before Villupuram Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) which had convicted and sentenced him to imprisonment in the sexual harassment case.
The judge also dismissed another petition filed by the convict for suspending the sentence imposed on him until the disposal of a revision petition filed by him before the High Court challenging the verdict delivered by the CJM on June 16, 2023, and confirmed by the Villupuram Principal District on February 12, 2024. The judge said, there was no reason to either suspend the sentence or to grant him exemption from surrendering.
“It would not be in the interest of justice if this court grants suspension of sentence, more so considering the fact that the petitioner is not a novice. In fact, he was holding the post of Director General of Police. A person of the said stature, coming from a disciplined force, ought to have conducted himself in a proper manner but the action of the revision petitioner has degraded the morale of the police force,” the judge remarked.
Though the convict had highlighted several contradictions in the prosecution case, the judge said, those arguments were not fit enough to consider the plea for suspension of sentence. They could be weighed only at the time of hearing the main revision petition filed against the conviction as well as the sentence imposed by the trial court and confirmed by the appellate court.
The charge against the convict was that he had sexually harassed a woman Superintendent of Police in February 2021, when they were travelling together in his car on official duty. They were on duty to provide security to then Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami who was campaigning for the AIADMK during the elections to the Legislative Assembly. The CJM had found him guilty of the charge in 2023.
Though the convict lodged an appeal, the Villupuram Principal District Court dismissed his plea and confirmed the conviction and the sentence in 2024. Challenging these two concurrent findings of the courts, he had approached the High Court with a revision petition and sought exemption from surrendering and also to suspend his sentence until the disposal of his revision.
The Villupuram CJM had convicted and sentenced Das on June 16, 2023, for having sexually harassed a woman Superintendent of Police in February 2021 when they both were travelling together in his car on official duty and were providing security to then Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami who was campaigning for AIADMK during the elections to the Legislative Assembly.
Though the convict went on appeal, the Villlupuram Principal District Court dismissed his plea and confirmed the conviction as well as the sentence on February 12, 2024. Challenging these two concurrent findings of the courts, the convict had approached the High Court with a revision petition and sought exemption from surrendering until the disposal of his revision.
