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SC rules out TADA detenues' release

Josy Joseph in New Delhi

The Supreme Court today upheld the petition filed by Abdul Kareem, father of a slain Karnataka sub-inspector, challenging the Mysore special court order granting bail to 51 Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act detenues currently in detention.

It quashed the designated court's August 19 order dropping TADA charges against 51 accused and the August 28 order granting them conditional bail.

With this ruling, the efforts of the Tamil Nadu and Karnataka governments to secure the release of Kannada superstar Rajakumar by yielding to sandalwood smuggler Veerappan's demands, have been shot down.

Giving its verdict on Tuesday, the Supreme Court bench comprising Justices S P Bharucha, D P Mahapatra and Y K Sabbarwal, said the orders by the Mysore and Madras courts granting bail to the TADA detenues as demanded by Veerappan were "not good in law", and that they did not match the requirements in Section 321 of the Criminal Procedure Code while withdrawing prosecution in a TADA case

"The way applications were made for dropping of TADA charges against 160 accused, including Veerappan, shows it was a package deal. The deal being that TADA charges will be dropped and then the 51 accused, who are in judicial custody, will file bail applications which will not be opposed," the bench said adding "this showed the government's complicity with the accused."

The Supreme Court also found the affidavits filed by the law ministers of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu governments in the case to be 'very bad'.

In what is yet the strongest indictment of the two state governments' behaviour, the judges said, "The 10-year delay in arresting Veerappan gives doubt to the fact that there is a ploy to get the TADA detenues released. Special public prosecutor of Karnataka acted only upon the state's instructions and did not follow the requirements of law."

Interestingly, Karnataka's advocate general was not present in court when the judges delivered their long-awaited ruling while Abdul Kareem was said to be in Mysore.

Badrinath Babu, Kareem's advocate, told rediff.com, "The legal interpretation is that the lower court in Mysore has to resume the proceedings from where it ended, and today's verdict shows that it facilitated the release of TADA detenues without considering all legal aspects. They also did not consider the impact of the decision on the morale of the security forces."

PTI adds:

Karnataka government had pleaded that its decision to drop charges against the accused was based on the apprehension that if something happened to Dr Rajakumar, there would be linguistic unrest and widespread violence.

Rejecting this plea, the bench said, "There was nothing to show from the records, including sensitive intelligence reports given to the court, that the government was assured that Rajakumar will be released after Veerappan's associates were enlarged from prison."

"The government did not consider the possibility of reprisal against the witnesses and the effect on the morale of the police force after these accused were released."

The SC bench also criticised the Tamil Nadu government and quashed a trial court's order dropping TADA charges against secessionist element Radio Venketeshan and the government's decision to revoke detention order passed against Satyamurthy and three others under the National Security Act.

TADA charges were slapped against Veerappan and 160 others in two cases - one pertaining to killing of superintendent of police Harikrishna and the other relating to the looting of Rampura police station.

At present, only 51 of the accused are in judicial custody while the others were either not apprehended or were released on bail.

"The government on the result of its efforts said that Veerappan's gang has been reduced to under ten, but did not controvert the allegation that he was now in league with secessionist elements," the bench said.

Unless firm steps were taken, the bench said, "Veerappan will continue with the life of crime, which may also prove to be anti-national."

Both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu governments had conceded that there were intelligence reports a year back that Veerappan was planning to kidnap the Kannada film star. Tamil Nadu had blamed Karnataka for not providing prior intimation of Dr Rajakumar's visit to his Gajanur farmhouse.

However, Justice Bharucha and Justice Mohapatra said it would have been prudent on the part of the Tamil Nadu government, specially in view of the threat perception, to post guards outside the farmhouse.

These guards could have alerted their superiors once Dr Rajakumar came to the farmhouse and the kidnapping episode could have been averted, the court said.

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