1. Crl.O.P.No.8690 of 2017 and Crl.O.P.No.12060 of 2017 were two petitions filed by public spirited individuals before the Madras High Court alleging that members of Tamil Nadu State Police were involved in theft and smuggling of Temple idols.
2. Pursuant to these Petitions, the Madras High Court directed the formation of a Special Investigation Team headed by the then Inspector General (Idol Wing) of TN Police, Shri Ponn Manickavel for investigation of all pending idol theft cases in the State of Tamil Nadu.
3. However, the State Government of Tamil Nadu abruptly transferred Shri Ponn Manickavel from the Idol Wing to Inspector General, Railways.
4. Quashing this transfer, the MHC by common order dated July 21, 2017 issued 20 directions directing the TN govt to create a special camp at Trichy headed by Sri Ponn Manickavel to deal with all cases including pending investigations & trials relating to idol theft throughout TN
5. Against the said Judgement, TN govt preferred SLP (Crl) No.6139-6140 of 2017. However, the Hon’ble Supreme Court by its order dated September 1, 2017 upheld the order of the Madras High Court as well as the directions relating to formation of an SIT under Shri Ponn Manickavel
6. In said proceeding before the Supreme Court, Shri Ponn Manickavel was represented by the Mentor of our Legal team Shri. @jsaideepak.
7. Yet again, on August 1, 2018, the State Government of Tamil Nadu abruptly passed G.O.Ms.No.885 transferring all pending idol theft cases as well as future cases to the CBI.
9. By a common order dated 30/11/2018, a Special Division Bench of the Madras High Court allowed the writ petitions and the Government Order transferring the cases to CBI was quashed.
10. Apart from quashing the GO, exercising power under Article 226 the Division Bench directed Sri Ponn Manickavel to take charge as Special Officer heading the SIT dealing with idol theft cases for a period of 1 year or until further orders.
11. Shri Ponn Manickavel had been appointed as the Special Officer heading the Special Investigation Team since he had superannuated on November 30, 2018.
12. Also, in addition to the 20 directions which were issued vide order dated 21/07/2017, the Hon’ble Division Bench issued 10 more directions. It was further ordered that all the directions issued should be implemented by the State Government of Tamil Nadu without any delay.
13. Yet again, TN govt preferred Civil Appeal Nos.3918-3919 of 2019 against the judgment of the High Court dated 30/11/2018. This time too the Supreme Court upheld the judgment of the Madras High Court with a few modifications to some of the directions passed by the High Court.
14. In particular, Direction No.4 was modified by the SC to the limited extent that the report of progress in idol theft investigations should be submitted to Addl DGP and such report may be submitted by Special Officer to HC only when any further directions are required from HC
15. It was directed that that the Special Officer shall take all appropriate steps along with his Team and he shall submit report to the Additional DGP of the result of the investigations so that appropriate further action can be taken.
16. Despite the directions of the Division Bench of MHC and SC, out of 70 Police Officers allotted to the SIT, 51 officers themselves challenged the appointment of the Special Officer. The said challenge too was dismissed by the Supreme Court on April 26, 2019
17. Effectively only 19 out of allotted 70 Officers were available to SO to pursue his mandate. Despite directions of MHC & SC, TN govt issued G.O.Ms.No.214 Home SC Dept dated 29/04/19 & Memo dated 2/5/19 by DGP ostensibly to give effect to Courts' directions
18. Under the said GO and the Memo, the ADGP would decide all matters pertaining to investigation, arrest and final reports in relation to idol theft cases.
19. Owing to these developments, the Special Officer, Shri Ponn Manickavel, preferred a Contempt Petition before the Madras High Court on the ground that the State Government and the State Police Department had actively failed to comply with the directions of the Court.
20. Further, since the one year term of the Special Officer would expire on November 30, 2019, an application for extension of the term was sought so as to pursue pending idol theft investigations and trials to their logical end.
21. Here is the link to the judgement of April 12, 2019 of the Supreme Court wherein the Court had affirmed the Madras High Court's judgment dated November 30, 2018 appointing Shri Ponn Manickavel as the Special Officer heading the idol wing SIT- indiankanoon.org/doc/149052988/
22. In the said Judgement, the Supreme Court has recorded the submission made on behalf of the Special Officer Shri Ponn Manickavel that he was ready to perform his duties in the SIT without any pay or benefits except the pension he was already receiving.
23. Against the Contempt Petition & Extension Application filed by Shri Ponn Manickavel before the Division Bench of MHC, the ADGP and TN govt approached SC seeking stay on contempt petition as well as the extension of term application filed by Shri Ponn Manickavel.
24. The ADGP as well as the State Government sought handing over of all files relating to idol theft cases on the basis of yet another GO issued on November 29, 2019.
25. The said matter was taken up today by Justices Shri Ashok Bhushan and Shri Mr. Shah of the Supreme Court as Items 16 & 48 in Court No. 9.
26. The ADGP was represented by Senior Advocate Shri Mukul Rohatgi and the Special Officer Shri Ponn Manickavel was represented by the Mentor of our legal team Shri @jsaideepak.
27. Shri Mukul Rohatgi submitted that since the judgement dated November 30, 2018 of the Madras High Court had merged with the judgement dated April 12, 2019 of the Supreme Court, the Special Officer could have filed the Contempt Petition only before the Supreme Court.
28. He further submitted that since the term of one year of the Special Officer had ended on November 30, 2019, all case files had to be handed over to the ADGP by the Special Officer Shri Ponn Manickavel.
29. In response @jsaideepak submitted that as appointing authority, MHC had the power & duty to monitor the proceedings in idol theft cases especially since SC had not taken away the power of HC to pass further orders/directions in relation to compliance of its earlier directions
30. Shri. @jsaideepak further submitted that right from 2017, entire endeavour of TN govt was to remove Shri Ponn Manickavel from all idol theft cases since he had exposed that rot was deep & all pervasive in Police Dept, HRCE bureaucracy as well as among elected representatives.
31. Shri. @jsaideepak submitted that out of the 70 police officers allotted to Shri Pon Manickavel, only 19 were cooperative. Further, that CDs and files relating to over 31 cases had gone missing.
32. Shri. @jsaideepak further submitted that Shri Ponn Manickavel had investigated into the theft of Temple jewels from the Shri Subrahmanya Swami Temple at Tiruchendur and was on verge of exposing the nexus between HRCE officials, State Police officials & elected representatives
33. In light of these facts Shri @jsaideepak submitted that the SO was more than willing to handover the case files to HC, but not to ADGP. He further submitted that extension of term application filed by Shri Ponn Manickavel before MHC must not be stayed or interfered with by SC
34. Shri E. Rajendran, one of the public spirited writ Petitioners before MHC, also supported the submissions of Shri @jsaideepak & further submitted that he would place before SC the evidence for involvement of high profile elected representatives from TN in idol theft cases.
35. Accordingly, the Supreme Court had directed stay of the contempt petition before the Madras High Court and has granted liberty to the Special Officer to move a Contempt petition before the Supreme Court.
36. Pending the disposal of extension of term application by MHC, the Court has directed Special Officer to handover the case files to the ADGP. The Supreme Court has also granted the Special Officer time to respond to the petition filed by the ADGP and the State Government of TN
37. The Supreme Court has now listed the matter in January 2020 for further proceedings.
