More articles by

Lakshmi Subramanian
Lakshmi Subramanian

KARNAN CASE

Justice Karnan still on the run; Kolkata police team leaves Chennai

justice-karnan-file-pti The Kolkata police went through a tough five weeks in search of the absconding judge | PTI (File photo)

Four days after his retirement, Justice Karnan is still on the run, leaving the team of five police officers from Kolkata frustrated. The officers, after a month-long search in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, have left Chennai for Kolkata without Karnan.

The five-member team led by a senior official in the rank of a director general came to Chennai in search of Justice Karnan following the Supreme Court's orders. The controversial judge had addressed the press at the state guest house in the city the day before the team arrived. However, when the team landed at the guest house, Karnan had left at around 9.45 am in another vehicle. Despite seeking help from the Tamil Nadu police, the Kolkata police went through a tough five weeks in search of the absconding judge.

During the search, the police went to five places in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Andhra Pradesh as well as the judge's native place, after receiving specific information. Next, they reached Tada, a town near Nellore in Andhra Pradesh, following the information that he was there. However, Karnan had left before they reached.

Interestingly, the team of police officers from Kolkata are senior officers who are experienced in nabbing criminals and putting them behind bars.

“Their difficulty was in tracing Karnan,” says a senior police officer, who was asked to assist the Kolkata police in the case. Normally, in such absconding cases, the police first trace the whereabouts close to the person. But in this case, tracing or tracking his friends did not help as many of them were senior jurists, advocates and judges, who hold high posts in the Indian judiciary. If Karnan resided in any of their houses, the police cannot easily enter their houses as it would invite legal trouble.

The police officers have left for Kolkata empty-handed telling their counterparts in Chennai, “catching a judge, even if he had retired, is a different ball game.”

This browser settings will not support to add bookmarks programmatically. Please press Ctrl+D or change settings to bookmark this page.

Related Reading