J. SOWKIYADEVI Vs. SUPERINTENDENT OF POLICE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner, wife of one Jeyavelan / detenu, filed this petition on 18/5/2020 that her husband is in the illegal detention of the respondents 2 to 6 and prayed for issuing a writ of habeas corpus to produce her husband before this Court from the custody of the respondents 2 to 6 and to set him at liberty.

(2.) The case of the petitioner is that her husband, Jeyavelan, is an Advocate practicing at Kovilpatti. The sixth respondent is well known to her husband for a long time and due to such friendship, her husband borrowed a sum of Rs.5, 00, 000.00 from him. He is also making regular payment of interest. While so, all of a sudden, on 30/4/2020, a group of policemen, in mufti, had barged into their residence and started to break open the gate at the entrance of their house. They used filthy language and abused her and one of the person in mufti pulled her nighty, as she was holding the grill gate together. They broke open the gate with crowbar and forcibly entered into the house around 11.00 pm and pulled her husband out of the house. Without even bothering that her husband is a Lawyer, the fifth respondent slapped him with hands on the face and chest and started to threaten that he will kill him if he does not return the amount to the sixth respondent.

(3.) In this regard, the petitioner lodged a complaint before the Kovilpatti East Police Station in the nighthours. The lady Sub-Inspector of Police, who was present in the police station, informed her that the police, who came to her house, is from Tenkasi. On 1/5/2020, the petitioner received a phone call from her husband's mobile number and her husband cried that he has been tortured by the second respondent. On 2/5/2020, the third respondent called her over phone around 12.00 noon that they are coming back along with her husband. They came with a Lawyer and insisted her to give her husband's Aadhar card, PAN Card, details of their properties and other property documents, etc., and also collected her signature in blank pro notes. On 4/5/2020, the police took the petitioner's husband to the Sub Registrar's Office at Kovilpatti for registering a document in favour of the sixth respondent. The Sub Registrar refused to register the document and her husband was dropped in their house.