Chennai: Justice CS Karnan, a controversial former judge of the Madras and Kolkata High Courts, was on Wednesday arrested by the Chennai Central Crime Branch police on charges of abusing current and retired judges of the Supreme Court and High Court and their families.
This is the second time he is being arrested – the first being on the directions of the Supreme Court which held him guilty of committing contempt and sentenced him to six months imprisonment.
Video clips of Karnan making vulgar comments had gone viral a few weeks ago. He had also created a ruckus outside the residence of Justice Banumathi, a former Supreme Court judge, in Chennai.
The Madras High Court had recently ordered removal of all the video clips from websites and social media.
According to police, Karnan was arrested from his house in suburban Avadi.
“We registered a case against him under multiple sections of the Indian Penal Code including intentional insult to public servant sitting in judicial proceedings (Sec 228) and word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman (Sec 509),” a senior officer of the Central Crime Branch said.
Among the other provisions of the IPC invoked against the former judge are Section 294 (b), which deals with uttering obscene songs or words in public places; Section 506 [criminal intimidation]; Section 67 (A) [transmitting sexually explicit material in electronic form]; and Section 153 that deals with provocation with intent to cause riot.
