NE LEGAL BUREAU
CHENNAI, June 16
The Madras High Court on Tuesday wondered why the Tamil Nadu government was showing so much attention to getting cancelled the bail granted to senior DMK leader R S Bharathi in a case filed against him for alleged disparaging remarks against the Scheduled Caste community.
When an appeal filed by the City Crime Branch Police seeking cancellation of bail granted to the DMK Rajya Sabha member came up for hearing, Justice N Sathish Kumar asked why so much time was being spent on such a matter.
He, however, issued notice to Bharathi, Organising Secretary of DMK, and posted the appeal to June 19.
This is not priority for the state. This is just a bail matter. Please don’t invite an adverse order. You know the limitations of such appeal. What grievance do you have? File a charge sheet and prove the offence,’ the Judge said earlier in his oral observations.
Responding, the additional public prosecutor submitted that being a parliamentarian, the accused should not have made such derogatory comments against members of SC/ST communities.
As the prosecutor insisted that the court should put the accused on notice before arriving at a decision, the judge ordered notice to Bharathi and adjourned the matter for final hearing on June 19.
The CCB sought cancellation of the bail granted by the Principal Sessions Judge here on May 23 primarily on COVID-19 ground, hours after Bharathi was arrested in connection with his alleged disparaging remarks against the SC community a few months ago.
It had then moved the high court seeking to cancel the interim bail. On May 30, the high court dismissed CCBs plea and later the sessions court allowed a fresh bail plea moved by Bharathi.
Challenging the bail, the CCB moved the Supreme Court which directed it to approach the high court.
