Madras High Court Dismisses Plea Seeking To Forbear State From Detaining BJP Functionary Amar Prasad Reddy

Justice G Jayachandran found the plea to be premature after taking note of the Public Prosecutor’s submission that the State police had no proposal, as of now, to detain Amar under any prevention laws.

Amar, who is handling the Sports and Skill Development Cell for the BJP Tamil Nadu, was arrested on October 21 this year in connection with the alleged attacking and damage of a JCB machine brought to remove the illegal and unauthorized flag poles outside the residence of TN BJP Chief K Annamalai. The Chengalpattu District Principal Sessions Court had previously dismissed the bail petitions filed by Amar.

According to the Tambaram police, when officials arrived at Annamali’s residence to remove the 45-ft flag pole which was close to a high voltage power line and causing inconvenience to the public, a large number of BJP workers came to the site and protested. Following this, the JCB machine was attacked and damaged.

Meanwhile, Amar’s wife Nirosha had approached the High Court with the present plea claiming that Amar was not present at the scene of occurrence and that he was arrested from his residence the following day without following any due process as stipulated under the DK Basu guidelines.

Nirosha also argued that false prosecution had been initiated against her husband by Amalraj the Commissioner of Police, Tambaram since Amar was a whistle-blower in the fake passport issue in Tamil Nadu, in which the then ADGP State Intelligence Officer Davidson Asirvatham, who was a relative of Amalraj was also implicated. She submitted that Amalraj was pursuing further false cases against Amar and attempting to detain him under the Preventive Detention laws.

Thus, apprehending that a detention order would be passed to curtain Amar’s liberty and claiming that the false case was registered only due to political motives, Nirosha sought directions to forbear the authorities from detaining Amar. She submitted that the authority’s actions were highly arbitrary and violative of Human rights besides being against the principles of natural justice.

The State Public Prosecutor Hasan Mohammed Jinnah, however, informed the court that at present the police had no intention to detain Amar. Recording this observation, the court dismissed the plea.

Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Mad) 343

Case Title: Mrs Nirosha v Principal Secretary to Government

Case No: WP 31403 of 2023