Retired Calcutta High Court Judge C S Karnan arrested in Coimbatore

The controversial Kolkata high court judge had retired while on the run.

More than a month after he went into hiding following a Supreme Court order to jail him, Justice (retired) C S Karnan was arrested from Coimbatore on Tuesday. Close aide and advocate of the retired Calcutta High Court judge confirmed the arrest to OneIndia.

"We arrested former high court judge Karnan at around 6.45 pm from a private resort at Malumichampatti in Coimbatore," a senior officer of the CID said.

Sixty-two-year-old Karnan, who retired from service on June 12, had been "hiding" in the resort for the last few days and tried to resist the team of CID officers from West Bengal when it went there to arrest him. "He (Karnan) resisted our officers and there was an argument also. Despite that, we arrested him," he said, adding that the former judge will be produced in a court in Chennai tomorrow before being taken to Kolkata.

Three police teams from Kolkata were camping in Coimbatore, around 550 km from Chennai, for the past three days and traced Karnan on the basis of his mobile phone calls. The police in Tamil Nadu gave the technical support to trace his whereabouts, officials in Coimbatore said.

Retired judge C S Karnan is expected to be brought to Chennai on Wednesday after which he will be taken to Kolkata. The Supreme Court had asked West Bengal police to arrest him after he was sentenced to six months imprisonment in a contempt case.

Justice (retired) C S Karnan had been on the run since May after a special bench of the Supreme Court sentenced him to prison. Teams of West Bengal police and Tamil Nadu police have been looking for the former judge who retired while on the run. While he was sentenced on May 9, he retired while in hiding on June 12.

Who is Justice Karnan

Way back in November 2011 Justice Karnan moved the National Commission for SCs and STs alleging harassment by fellow judges.

Trouble began when Justice Karnan who was appointed to Madras High Court in 2009 was transferred to Calcutta High Court in 2016 by the Supreme Court. After his attempts to stall the transfer turned futile, Justice Karnan accused the Judiciary of corruption. In January this year, he alleged that 20 sitting and retired Supreme Court and High Court judges are corrupt.

Justice Karnan was held in contempt of court in May this year and was sentenced to six months in prison. This order came after Justice Karnan passed a series of orders against Supreme Court judges including the Chief Justice of India.

Justice Karnan who arrived in Chennai hours before the Supreme Court sentenced him to imprisonment, held a press conference soon after the judgement. Moments later he is said to have vacated the guest house that he was lodged at. By the time the West Bengal Police reached Chennai, Justice C S Karnan had left the city. A team went to Srikalahasti on his trail but to no avail.

A team of West Bengal police camped in Tamil Nadu to arrest the retired judge while his aides claimed that he was out of the country. Multiple petitions filed by Justice Karnan seeking reprieve from the sentence yielded no positive results and arrest became imminent.

OneIndia News