Suspended special DGP Rajesh Das moves HC to recall four witnesses including a woman IPS officer who accused him of sexual harassment

Suspended Special Director General of Police Rajesh Das has moved the Madras High Court seeking a direction to Villupuram Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) to recall four witnesses, including a woman Indian Police Service (IPS) officer who had accused him of having made sexual advances towards her and also her husband, so that his lawyers could subject them to further cross examination to cull out the truth.

Suspended Special Director General of Police Rajesh Das has moved the Madras High Court seeking a direction to Villupuram Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) to recall four witnesses, including a woman Indian Police Service (IPS) officer who had accused him of having made sexual advances towards her and also her husband, so that his lawyers could subject them to further cross examination to cull out the truth.

He has also urged the High Court to stay the trial proceedings before the CJM until the disposal of his plea to recall the witnesses. When the petitions filed by the suspended police officer were listed for hearing before Justice Sunder Mohan on Wednesday, Government Advocate (criminal side) S. Santhosh accused the petitioner of attempting to drag on the trial despite three previous orders of the High Court to expedite the proceedings.

Refuting the allegation, Senior Counsel Abdul Saleem, representing the suspended police officer, said 68 witnesses had already been examined and hence his client could not be accused of dragging the proceedings. He pointed out that the allegation against his client was that he had misbehaved with the woman IPS officer on February 21, 2021, when they both were providing security to the then Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami during election campaign.

He said that after the examination-in-chief and cross examination of the woman IPS officer and her husband before the CJM, the then DGP (Law and Order) J.K. Tripathi and Home Secretary S.K. Prabhakar were examined before the Magistrate on November 25, 2022 and December 13, 2022 respectively. After the examination of the two officers, the petitioner wanted to confront the complainant as well as her husband with certain facts.

Therefore, an application was made to recall them for examination but the Magistrate dismissed the plea on March 23 this year. Similarly, the suspended special DGP had taken out another application to recall A.R. Vithun Kumar who was the Inspector of his pilot vehicle on the day of the alleged incident and also Inspector Sundarraj who had registered a First Information Report regarding the incident on February 27, 2021.

The CJM rejected this application too on March 23. Therefore, the suspended special DGP urged the court to set aside the orders passed by the Magistrate and issue a direction to recall all four witnesses. Justice Mohan on Wednesday granted time till April 24 for the prosecution to file its counter affidavit to his plea.