Former judge Karnan taken to Kolkata by West Bengal Police

He was taken by an Air India flight by a six-member team of West Bengal Police at around 11.50 am, police said.

Earlier, Karnan, who was arrested last night in Coimbatore, was brought by a private airline past midnight and later accommodated in the retiring room in the airport complex amid tight security.

Karnan, who had been evading arrest since the May 9 Supreme Court order, was picked up last night by Kolkata Police from a private resort at Malumichampatti, about six km from Coimbatore, where he was staying for the past few days.

Three police teams from Kolkata were camping in Coimbatore and traced Karnan on the basis of his mobile phone calls with the Tamil Nadu Police providing technical support to trace his whereabouts, a senior local police official had said.

Karnan, who earned the dubious distinction of being the first sitting high court judge to be awarded a jail term by the apex court, had retired from service on June 12 as a fugitive.

A seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice of India J S Khehar had sentenced him to six months imprisonment for contempt of court.

Three days after the sentence,  Karnan had moved the apex court for staying his arrest.

Enrolled as an advocate with the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu in 1983, Karnan was appointed a judge of the Madras High Court in 2009. He was transferred to the Calcutta High Court on March 11, 2016.