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Who really break the law?
 While
discussing Serina's case, we discussed in the article 'Politics
Vs Opium' about how ganja played a major role in all politically-sensitive
cases in Tamil Nadu. To buttress this allegation, the former chief minister of
Karunanidhi, in an interview to the Tamil daily 'Dinamalar', accused that the
policemen foisted cases on an innocent Serina by implanting ganja at her
residence because she was having an affair with Natarajan, husband of Sasikala,
a close aide of Chief Minister Jayalalithaa.
Close on the heels of the
accusation against Chennai City Police regarding 'The Hindu' episode over the
high-handed manner in which the policemen behaved with the journalists, this
time Madurai City Police have got entangled in a controversy and were indicted
by High Court judge Karpagavinayagam while hearing the bail petition of Serina.
Once again, the Tamil Nadu
policemen threw to the winds the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC),
the guideliness of the apex court and even the orders of the Government of Tamil
Nadu in Serina's case.
 It
looks like the Tamil Nadu policemen are more active at night than during the day
time as most of their arrests are made only during the late hours. It was 2 a.m.
in the case of DMK leader Karunanidhi, 1 a.m. in the case of government
employees who went on strike, 9 p.m. in the case of The Hindu journalists and 10
p.m. while arresting Serina.
Even though there are several
orders, including the apex court's guideliness that women should not be taken to
the police station, even for interrogation, after 6 p.m., the Madurai Police had
arrested Serina and her mother at night, violating all the orders.
The police had also searched
Serina's house the same night without any search warrant.
As soon as Serina and her
mother were arrested, the policemen should have produced them before the
magistrate and got an order to keep them in police custody. But they took both
of them at 2 a.m. the same night to Chennai for reasons best known to them.
According to the guideliness of
the apex court, as soon as a person is arrested, somebody from the person's
family should be intimated within eight hours. But in Serina's case, police had
intimated her arrest only after two days, violating the apex court's guidelines.
 Even
after making all such violations, the Madurai city police commissioner and his
team of officers are least bothered about the repercussions as the arrests
seemed to have been made at the behest of high-level politicians and they firmly
believe that nothing would happen to them for all such violations.
Judge Karpagavinayagam had
announced in the court that contempt proceedings would be initiated against the
erring police officers and he had also ordered to keep Serina in a home instead
of the central prison as he was going to issue orders on Serina's bail petitions
soon.
While Serina has been waiting
with hope that she would be released on bail within a few days, her case took an
ugly turn with the judge deciding to withdraw from the case on the day in which
he had to take a decision on Serina's bail petition.
The
law-breakers, who violated various laws, are safe whereas the accused has been
suffering for more 120 days in prison. On the last day of the courts
proceedings, when the judge withdrew from the case, Serina was found weeping
throughout the day in the court, whereas the policemen, the violators of law,
were twirling their moustache, smiling at their victory.
This episode sends out two
messages to everyone: If there is a fight between politics and justice, it is
politics which will reign supreme; Justice is possible in a democracy like India
but would become a distinct impossibility if the case attains political
significance.
Harvey
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