Apology from high and mighty can’t replace accountability: Madras HC

CHENNAI: Questioning an early morning swoop on the house of an economist and nabbing him over a social media post, which later turned out to be made from a fake account, the Madras High Court observed that an apology and intervention by the Chief Minister cannot substitute for police accountability.

The true measure of a police force was not how it treated eminent personalities when the press was watching, but how it treated ordinary citizens when nobody was watching, Justice N Ramesh said. He noted that the handling of political speech, including the case before him — the anticipatory bail petition filed by DMK councillor D Sudha — had to be assessed against this standard.

Referring to the recent detention of A Kalaiyarasan, associate professor at the Madras Institute of Development Studies, the judge said the incident highlighted serious concerns over the handling of complaints involving political speech.

Kalaiyarasan was picked up from his residence around 5 am by plainclothes policemen over an abusive social media comment targeting a ruling party legislator. The account, which carried Kalaiyarasan's photograph, was subsequently found to be fake. He was released the same day, after which Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay received him at the Secretariat. A minister also publicly acknowledged the lapse.

Clarifying that the incident was not before him and that he was not making any findings on it, the judge said the manner in which the detention was done raised many questions that remained unanswered despite the subsequent apology and intervention.

He asked what verification had been carried out before plainclothes cops were sent to a citizen's residence at dawn and what action had been taken against those responsible. An apology, however high its source, does not amount to accountability, he observed, adding that a remedy dependent on the Chief Minister's personal intervention could not be considered a remedy.

The judge also pointed out that Kalaiyarasan's prominence helped secure his release within hours and an audience with the Chief Minister. However, an ordinary citizen without access to power, detained on the basis of a similar mistaken complaint, could face police custody, remand and prolonged legal proceedings before the authenticity of the social media account was even questioned, he observed.