FTC orders arrest of IPS Officer on assault case

Madurai, Apr 25 (UNI) Acting on a directive from the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court, a Fast Track Court (FTC) here has ordered the arrest of IPS Officer K Prem Kumar and three other police personnel in a case relating to the assault and humiliation of an ex-serviceman in 1982.

FTC judge Mr Bhoopalan directed the Vadipatti police to produce the four in the court.

The case pertains to the police thrashing and parading in public with handcuffs the ex-serviceman, R. Nallakaman (74), of Vadipatti, who had a dispute with his landlord over vacating the house. Prem Kumar, then Sub inspector of Vadipatti police station, had not even spared the wife and son of the ex-serviceman. A case was registered against the accused after a long legal battle.

Three other police personnel, Subraminan, Chellaiah and Ramakrishnan, attached to the police station, were arraigned as accused.

Though convicted in 2003, Prem Kumar was acquitted after due admonition under Sec-3 of the Probation of Offenders Act.

Setting aside the trial court order, the High Court confirmed the conviction of the IPS officer and three other police personnel.

All the four were sentenced to one-month simple imprisonment.

The accused, entrusted with protecting the law, had taken the law into their hands, a violation of Article 21 of the Constitution, and hence should be punished, the Court had observed.

Mr Prem Kumar, former Investigation officer in the Sankaramaman murder case in which the Kanchi Sankaracharyas were accused, hogged the limelight with his arrest of both the Mutt Heads. After the DMK came to power, he was shunted out.

UNI