CoP told to recover cops’ salary for not complying with order

Two women inspectors who failed to execute a non-bailable warrant issued by a Mahila Court despite a direction by the Madras High Court itself would have to dock their salary that they earned while they served as the Station House Officer (SHO) of the all-women police station (AWPS), Anna Nagar. The Madras High Court directed the Greater Chennai Police Commissioner to recover their salary for not complying with court orders and remit it to the State government.

Justice P Velmurugan issued the direction while hearing a petition by K Parimala of Nerkundram, who sought for a direction to the Commissioner to execute the non-bailable warrant issued by the Additional Mahila Court, Egmore, against her sister-in-law S Sabitha and her husband Srinath Sankar in connection with a domestic violence case in 2013. The court had dismissed an appeal by the accused in 2019 and directed the officials to execute the Mahila Court’s direction.

When the matter came on Wednesday, Justice Velmurugan expressed his dissatisfaction against two women officials for not complying with the directives by the lower court and even the High Court. “The two delinquent officers named Dhana Lakshmi and Selvi, who were the inspectors on different occasions, being the public servants and getting salary from the public money, did not perform their duty satisfactorily and failed to obey the order of this court. Hence, they are not entitled to the salary during their period as Station House Officer (SHO),” the judge said.

The money should be recovered from them and remitted to the government, the court said, and also directed the Commissioner to take departmental action against the two officials. The officer was also asked to file an action taken report before the court at the earliest, preferably before February.

Dhana Lakshmi and Selvi were the inspectors who dealt with the case when they were SHO at the station. Currently, Dhana Lakshmi is serving in the City Crime branch and Selvi is working in the Tamil Nadu Uniformed Services Recruitment Board.

The court had summoned Dhana lakshmi on December 29 to seek an explanation why she did not serve the warrant as directed by the court. However, she failed to explain the reason for not complying with the court order, the judge noted.