The Madras High Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition filed by former special Director-General of Police (DGP) Rajesh Das to transfer the hearing of an appeal preferred by him, against his conviction in a sexual harassment case, from the Villupuram Principal District and Sessions Court to any other sessions court.
Justice N. Anand Venkatesh held that the petitioner had not made out any ground to order the transfer of the appeal. He directed the petitioner to appear in person before the Principal Sessions Court on January 12, commence the arguments on his side on January 18 and complete those arguments on or before January 24.
Thereafter, the Principal Sessions Court should pronounce the judgment on the appeal on its own merits and in accordance with the law, as expeditiously as possible, the judge ordered. He concurred with Additional Public Prosecutor A. Damodaran that the petitioner had not made out any ground for the transfer of the appeal.
The judge pointed out that it was the petitioner who had been seeking repeated adjournments before the Principal Sessions Court for one reason or the other. He had also approached the High Court twice, and obtained favourable orders when such adjournments were refused by the Principal Sessions Court.
Despite the High Court fixing different dates for his appearance before the Principal Sessions Court, the petitioner did not appear before the court on those dates, and sought adjournment again, citing the filing of the transfer petition on the ground of bias. “This conduct on the part of the petitioner assumes a lot of significance,” the judge said.
“If the facts of this case and the grounds raised by the petitioner are put before a reasonable man, he will come to a conclusion that such an apprehension raised by the petitioner is his own making, and that there is no ground to infer that there is a likelihood of bias on the part of the lower appellate judge,” Justice Venkatesh said.
The appeal had been filed against a judgment passed by the Villupuram Chief Judicial Magistrate on June 16, 2023 convicting the former special DGP for having made sexual advances towards a woman IPS officer in February 2021 and sentencing him to three years of rigorous imprisonment for the offence.
