God save Tamil Nadu cops: Madras HC in harassment case – Times of India

CHENNAI: “God save the (police) department,” said an exasperated Madras high court on Wednesday, wondering whether an SP-rank officer would murder someone if his superior instructed him to do so.
The court made the observations while refusing to discharge the then Chengalpet district superintendent D Kannan from a case registered against him for having intercepted a woman IPS officer from proceeding to Chennai to lodge a sexual harassment complaint against the then special DGP Rajesh Das.

Justice P Velmurugan, refusing to accept Kannan’s argument that he merely carried out the instructions given to him by his superior officer, said: “Only lawful instruction could be followed. If a senior officer faces such allegations, how people will have faith on the department?”
Asserting that only 10% of police officers were acting as per conscience, the judge said such incidents would bring bad name to the department.
“Only a few women, that too in higher cadre, gather courage to come out with such complaints. Most of such victims in lower cadre do not come out openly,” the judge said.
He then dismissed as withdrawn a plea moved by Kannan seeking to discharge him from the case. He directed the trial court to complete the trial in three months.
Kannan was added as a co-accused in the case based on the complaint filed by the woman IPS officer that he had stopped her car to prevent her from proceeding to file a complaint against the DGP.
‘Tried to stop the car as per instructions’
Kannan contended that he had tried to stop the car of the woman IPS officer who had been proceeding to file a complaint against the DGP ‘only as per the instruction of Rajesh Das who was his superior.’
As the counsel for the petitioner objected for the same citing the order passed by the Supreme Court setting aside the suo motu proceeding initiated by another single judge to monitor the investigation, the judge said, if you are aggrieved you can approach the Apex Court.
Earlier, counsel for the petitioner submitted that the car of the woman IPS officer had been stopped only by the public since it had been driven in a rash and negligent manner.
Kannan only handed over his phone to her as per the instructions of the DGP, he added.
Since the court was not inclined to entertain the plea, the SP sought to withdraw his petition.