The hunt that began on May 9 for Calcutta High Court judge C S Karnan came to an end on Tuesday, when he arrested from a guest house in Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore by a team of West Bengal CID. He was being taken to Chennai by late night flight and the CID team brought him to Kolkata by an Air India flight and moved to Presidency jail. The justice went into hiding after Supreme Court awarded him six-month jail term on May 10. The West Bengal police failed to arrest Justice Karnan in the last one a half months has saved the situation of a serving judge of an HC being arrested and sent to jail.
The team of state CID (Criminal Investigation Department) arrested him from a private resort at Malumichampatti, about six km from Coimbatore. According to the official, he was to stay there for the last few days, try to resist the arrest and argued with the police. The police teams were camping there for the last three days and traced him on the basis of his mobile phone calls. The arrest came eight days after Justice Karnan ended his tenure on June 12 with no customary farewell being given to him in the Calcutta High Court in view of his absence.
Former Calcutta high Court judge C S Karnan, who had evading arrest since May 9 after the Supreme Court issued the contempt of court notice against the 62-year old Justice in February for allegedly degrading the judicial institution and given six months jail term by a seven-judge bench of the Supreme court headed by chief justice of India J S Khehar, when he was a serving judge of the Calcutta High Court. He became the first high court judge to have retired as a fugitive.
Karnan moved the Supreme Court for the suspension his sentence and sought review of the May 9 order but he failed to get interim bail from SC which refused to entertain his plea for relief. A vacation Bench of Justice D Y Chandrachud and S K Kaul said that the court was bound by the order of the seven-judge Bench and also added that other bench could not suspend the order and asked Karnan to approach CJI (Chief Justice of India) J S Khehar for any interim relief. The seven-judge Bench announced that Justice Karnan should face contempt proceedings for his scurrilous letters against sitting and retired High Court and Supreme Court, judges. Justice Karnan had written to the Prime Minister also.
Justice Karnan complained of chest pain at the airport, and then he was taken to a state-run hospital in the evening and checked by the doctors. After his checkup, he brought to the Presidency Correctional Home. Doctors recommended him to be taken to the SSKM Hospital because his blood pressure was quite high.
