Madras High Court Stays Investigation Against Administrator Of Isha Yoga Centre In Alleged Property Damage Case

The Coimbatore District Police had registered the case based on a complaint by K Ramakrishnan, General Secretary of Thanthai Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam. It was alleged that when Ramakrishnan, along with some of his party men visited the premises on the assumption that the Centre had encroached upon 44.3 acres of land allotted to Scheduled Tribes and trying to put up an electric crematorium without proper permission, they were threatened and their vehicle was damaged. A case was thus registered for offences under Sections 341 and 506(1) of IPC read with Section 3 of the Tamil Nadu Public Property (Prevention of Damage and Loss) Act 1992.

Justice G Jayachadran, while granting an interim stay on filing the final report, observed that there was no justification for Ramakrishnan and his men to go to the premises as the records revealed that the land was not allotted to the Scheduled Tribe community.

“This Court, on perusing the complaint finds that the reason for the defacto complainant visiting the property of the petitioner itself does not find any justification since the said 44.30 acres of land is not a land allotted to Schedule Tribes persons as per the information furnished by the office of the Tahsildar. Furthermore, in the complaint, there is no particulars about the vehicle in which they travelled and the nature of the damage caused to it. However, the police has registered the case for offence under Section 3 of TN Public Property (Prevention of Damage and Loss) Act, 1992,” the court observed.

The administrator, Dinesh Raja argued that the basis for filing the complaint itself was false and made with malice claiming that the institution had encroached into the lands allotted for the Scheduled Tribe community. He added that based on the information received from the Public Information Officer and Head Quarters Deputy Tahsildar under the RTI Act, the land was not encroached.

Raja further submitted that the electric crematorium was constructed after obtaining due permission from the authorities and informed the court that a writ petition was also pending in the High Court in connection with the issue. He added that the defacto complainants were filing the complaint with ulterior intentions after having failed to stale the construction of the electric crematorium.

The court was also informed that though the institute had tried to file a complaint against Ramakrishnan and his men for trespassing into the property and causing damage, they refused to register the case. It was also submitted that even after knowing of the details of the complaint against Ramakrishnan, the police lodged his complaint which was bereft of any details.

The court, noting the same, was inclined to order an interim stay. The court also issued notice Ramakrishnan returnable by August 21, 2024, and adjourned the case.

Case Title: Dinesh Raja CR v State

Case No: Crl OP 16216 of 2024