Madras High Court witnesses face-off between Rajesh Das and his estranged wife Beela Venkatesan

Madras High Court faces off between former DGP and Energy Secretary over electricity disconnection at Thaiyur bungalow.

The Madras High Court witnessed a fierce face-off between arrested former special Director General of Police (DGP) Rajesh Das and his estranged wife Beela Venkatesan, an IAS officer now serving as Energy Secretary to the Government of Tamil Nadu, over the issue of disconnection of electricity service connection to a bungalow situated at Thaiyur near Kelambakkam in Chengalpattu district.

Appearing before Justice J. Sathya Narayana Prasad, senior counsel V. Prakash, representing the former special DGP, insisted on issuing a direction to Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) to restore the electricity supply forthwith and then take action after issuing notice to his client who had been reportedly paying the electricity bills for the property for over two decades.

The counsel said, though the land, on which the bungalow had been constructed, stood in the name of Ms. Venkatesan, the building was constructed with a housing loan that his client had obtained from a private bank and also from his personal savings. He said, on May 19, a lineman had come to the property to disconnect the electricity due to the pressure exerted by the Energy Secretary.

When asked under what authority could the power be disrupted, the lineman came back the next day with a letter addressed by Ms. Venkatesan to the Tangedco Superintending Engineer in Chengalpattu on May 20 asking the officer to disconnect the power supply temporarily. The counsel contended that power could not be disconnected without notice to his client who was residing over there.

On the other hand, senior counsel P. Wilson, representing Ms. Venkatesan, said, the service connection had already been disconnected and therefore nothing remains to be decided in the writ petition filed by the former police officer. He also said, the service connection stood in the name of his client and therefore she was fully entitled to make a request for temporary disconnection of the power supply.

Mr. Wilson said that the substantial portion of the land actually belonged to Ms. Venkatesan’s father and that he had settled it in her favour. In 2023, the Energy secretary had, in turn, settled the property in favour of her children and also filed a petition seeking divorce from the former special DGP who had been convicted and sentenced to three years of imprisonment for the charge of sexually harassing a woman IPS officer.

Claiming that he had remained absconding for long despite having been convicted by the trial court in 2023 and the verdict having been confirmed by an appellate court too in 2024, Mr. Wilson said, Ms. Venkatesan had locked the bungalow to prevent him from taking refuge over there. However, he tresspassed into the residence and intimidated the security guard leading to his arrest on May 24, the counsel added.