The Supreme Court grants bail to Tamil Nadu godman Shiva Shankar Baba in POCSO case subjecting him to not use social media like YouTube, Facebook and other platforms to dissuade people from approaching authorities if they have complaints.

A bench of Justices L. Nageswara Rao and Justice B.R. Gavai asked the godman not to enter Tamil Nadu.

He was arrested by the Crime Bureau Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID) in New Delhi in June 2021 after a few students from the residential school made complaints of sexual abuse by him.

Police had earlier registered cases against Siva Sankar Baba for allegedly sexually abusing school children. Based on the complaint lodged by a respective victims, who have alleged that Shiv Shankar misbehaved with one of the victims in 2015 and with the other victim later in point of time, the criminal machinery was set in motion by the registration of the case against him.

On August 17, 2021, the Madras High Court dismissed two bail petitions filed by self-styled godman.

A Single Bench of Justice M. Dhandapani pointed out that in spite of the digital explosion and awareness of the public with regard to the perversion that is meted out to women folk, which has spread to the nook and corner of the globe not only through the digital media, but also through the print media, yet it is lamentable that the nocturnal nature of the predators to satisfy their lust engulf the women folk.

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“The facts that have crystallised from out of the investigation leaves this Court shocked at the manner in which the common man, in spite of his intellect and faculties, is, day-in and day-out, being taken through the rigmarole of being brainwashed by the so-called persons, who, under the guise of spiritual awakening and intellectual liberation, commit perverted acts on the women folk, as is alleged in the present complaints. It is yet more shocking that such acts, of late, are being perpetrated by the so-called godmans and also teachers, who are the spiritual and intellectual minds of the common man. Yet, the said godman and teachers, unmindful of their position and the pedestal in which they are placed by the public, to satisfy their lust, prey on their devotees/students, thereby tarnishing the image of the genuine noble minded souls, who have invested their lives for the spiritual and intellectual upliftment of the common man.”

The Court, resonating its mind one step further, feeled that the godman, under the guise of popular support from the persons at the helm of affairs and also with the support of their aides, who, in total abstinence to their normal intellect, fall prey to the guiles of the said persons, not only yield themselves, but also make other devotees yield to the evil minded acts of such persons. The act of such persons, both godman and teachers, has boomeranged to such an extent that the once noted noble profession of teachers and the divine position of godman are belittled by unscrupulous persons and the truly genuine spiritual souls have been placed under a scanner, thereby demeaning their status. The political and money power also acts as a catalyst in these persons crystallizing their evil intentions and yet maintaining their social status only due to the tendency of the common man, who, without due diligence to their intellect and intelligence fall at the feet of such persons to gain spiritual salvation and intellectual emancipation.

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The Madras High Court went on to observed that this case is one such example of how the alleged perverted acts of the petitioner, who is a self-styled godman, has created a havoc in the society, which is witnessing this incident on the heels of the incident, which was committed by certain teachers against their students. In fact, the victim has pointed out in her complaint that only due to the complaint given by a victim as to the incorrigible act committed by the teacher in the school, had given the complainant the courage to come out in the open to point a finger at the petitioner. In the present case, the allegation is that the petitioner has been involved in perverted acts against his devotees, who are none other than his students in the spiritual arena. However, the petitioner, both as a godman and a teacher has indulged in these wicked acts, not only against his devotees, but equally among his students, who study under him in the schools run by him.

It is reiterated by the Court that of late our society has been a hapless witness to the mushrooming of self-styled Godmen and Gurus who hold out promises of deliverance or salvation to the people who look upon them for answers for all their inner struggles, who are being driven to the point of despair and despondency. The society that is all pervasively influenced by myriad religious people, become invariably susceptible to machinisations at the hands of the phoney Gurus. The Society’s collective gullibility in matters of faith come in handy for the fake Godmen and the so-called spiritual Gurus for exploitation to the hilt. The reverential faith reposed in such spurious Gurus by their multitude of minions and betrayed at the eventual exposure of their wickedness hid behind the mask of spirituality.

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“Unfortunately, in the meanwhile, many people of all age groups become victims of their own blind faith. The society needs to guard itself against the attempts by such Gurus in exploiting the people’s emotional dependence on external agencies/forces. Ultimately, these struggles and the trepidations of the followers whether find answers or not, perfidious spiritual Gurus, invariably end up exponentially successful in aggrandizement of their wealth, power and influence, which has a cascading detrimental effect on the common man”

-Madras High Court reads.

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The Supreme Court has directed the Deputy Inspector General of Police, local range in Chennai to monitor and be a signatory to the status report to be submitted to the Court in the investigation into a death of a 24-year-old law graduate whose body found in the ICF Lake in 2011. 

The appeal is preferred by R. Sankarasubbu, an advocate and a senior member of Madras High Court Bar Association seeking proper investigation regarding the untravelled death of his son challenging the order passed by Madras High Court. By way of the Special Leave Petition, the petitioner prays for the direction to High Court to revive the SIT to do complete the investigation and by directing custodial interrogation of Suresh Babu and others police officials.

The bench comprising of Dr. Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice Surya Kant referred to the status report filed by CB-CID, Chennai and directed the counsel appearing on behalf of the State Tamil Nadu to make sure that the Investigating Officer is pursuing the investigation. The bench stated that the report has to be filed by May second week and the next hearing has been listed for May 13.

Senior Advocate R. Basant, appearing on behalf of the petitioner, seeks the bench to appoint certain officers of a certain rank to investigate. He states, “the message should go loud and clear that we will not tolerate this.”

Habeas Corpus writ had been filed in Madras High Court seeking the relief of production of the body of his missing son Sathish Kumar, aged 24 years as due to lack of manpower, the Inspector of Police is not conducting any effective scientific investigation to secure his son.

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It was submitted that Sathish met the Controller of Examinations of Dr Ambedkar Law University and made a request to furnish a provisional certificate to enrol himself before the Tamil Nadu State Bar Council, Chennai on completion of his Law course. The next day, Sathish left home and did not return. The petitioner tried calling him through his cell number but there was no response. The petitioner then contacted the Commissioner of Police and requested him to trace his whereabouts with help of a cell phone tower location by cybercrime police. They were able to locate the motorcycle in which the cell phone was kept. A missing man complaint was registered at Thirumangalam Police station.

On the first hearing, the division bench of Madras High Court directed the commissioner of police to form a special team for tracing Satish. Eventually, 5 teams were formed and serious efforts were being taken to trace Sathish Kumar.

Later in the course, a TV news channel broadcast the news of a male body floating in the ICF lake, which was of Sathish. According to the post-mortem conducted by a special team of 3 doctors, it was revealed that Sathish have died of shock and haemorrhage due to cut injuries in the throat. Further, the investigation was transferred to CBI as demanded by the petitioner.

Meanwhile, an affidavit was filed by Inspector of Police, N Suresh Babu and other officials seeking an apology for making alterations to court records. Therefore, the petitioner filed an application seeking direction to CBI to conduct custodial interrogation of the said police officers on the ground of grave omission and commission leading to tampering of evidence. The investigation of transferred to CBI (Delhi) by CBI (Chennai).

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The petitioner, then contended that the CBI rather than bringing the truth before Court, was trying to close the case as one of suicide and hence, sought an interim direction for the formation of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by a retired Judge of the Madras High Court.

CBI also recommended initiating major penalty proceedings against Mohd. Yusuf SSI, N.K Vanthia, Mohd. Nazar, Inspector of Police and Suresh Babu, Inspector of Police, for omissions and commissions on their part and also as against Dr. M. Baratanh, Assistant Director, Medical Forensic Science Laboratory.

Meanwhile, the Secretaries of Tamil Nadu Advocates Association and MHAA got impleaded seeking custodial interrogation of Suresh Babu, Inspector of Police alleging grave omission and commission leading to tampering of evidence. As the entire lawyer’s fraternity was stunned by the incident, the Women’s Lawyer’s Association and MHAA joined the request for the formation of SIT. Therefore, SIT was constituted headed by Mr. R.K. Raghavan, former Director, CBI.

The SIT reveals that it is a case of homicide resulting from cut-throat injuries, yet the case is undetected and recommended penal action against 6 police officials of the Tamil Nadu State Police and departmental action against two police officials of the CBI which was later opposed by the CBI on part of power and jurisdiction.

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The Madras High Court observed that, we have to keep a full stop to this internecine warfare between the C.B.I. and the S.I.T. Since this Court was not satisfied with the investigation of the C.B.I., the S.I.T. was constituted to unravel the mystery behind the murder of Sathish Kumar, independently and not with any intent to pick holes in the investigation of the other agencies.

The CBI came to the conclusion that the case is of suicide whereas the SIT has concluded that the death of Satish is a homicide but the accused is undetected. Under such circumstances, the High Court was of the opinion that the task of detecting the offender should be entrusted to the CB-CID (Metro), Chennai. The Court had directed it to file its status report every four months before the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Egmore, Chennai.

The Madras High Court has given six more weeks’ time to the CB-CID for completing the probe into the alleged sexual harassment of a woman IPS officer by a senior official.

Justice N. Anand Venkatesh passed this order on Friday in the petition filed by a high-ranked police officer of Tamil Nadu Police.

The Court, while passing the earlier order on April 30, 2021, directed the Investigation Officer to take effective steps to complete the investigation and file the final report within a period of six weeks.

The Investigation Officer has sworn to an affidavit on June 15, 2021 and has assigned the reasons while seeking for six more weeks time to file the final report.

The State Public Prosecutor submitted that after the earlier order was passed on April 30, 2021, the Investigation Officer had recorded the statements of 7 more witnesses and thus far 113 witnesses were examined and their statements have been recorded under Section 161(3) Cr.P.C.

The State Public Prosecutor further submitted that further statements were also recorded from some of the witnesses, who were already examined earlier.

He would further submitted that the 164 Cr.P.C. statements have been recorded from all the 7 witnesses and what remains is the analysis report and the same is pending with the Forensic Department. The State Public Prosecutor, on instructions from the Investigation Officer, submitted that all efforts are being taken to collect the analysis report and an outer time limit of six more weeks may be granted in order to file the final report in the case.

The Investigation Officer also stated that the relevant certificates as required under Section 65B of the Indian Evidence Act is also parallely collected. The Investigation Officer stated that all efforts will be taken to complete the investigation and file the final report before the concerned jurisdictional Court within a period of six weeks.

R.Shanmugasundaram, Advocate General appearing on behalf of the second and third respondents submitted that insofar as the report of the Internal Complaints Committee is concerned, the same has already been submitted to the Secretary, Home Department and steps are being taken to proceed further on the basis of the report submitted.

The Court is satisfied with the reasons assigned in the affidavit filed by the Investigation Officer for not being able to complete the investigation within six weeks as expected by the Court in the previous order dated April 30, 2021.

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The investigation is almost complete and what remains is certain reports to be collected by the Investigation Officer before the final report is filed before the concerned jurisdictional Court.

“Taking into consideration the Status Report filed by the Investigation Officer and also the submissions made by the Advocate General and the State Public Prosecutor, the Court is inclined to extend the time for filing of the final report.

Accordingly, there shall be a direction to the Investigation Officer to complete the investigation and file the final report before the concerned jurisdictional Court within a period of six weeks,” the Court ordered.