A Chennai court on Friday (November 22, 2024) issued a no-bail warrant (NBW) against retired police officer S Murugan after rejecting his plea to release him from the sexual harassment case against him.

The charge against Murugan is that while he was joint director of the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) in Chennai in August 2018, he allegedly sexually harassed a female SP-level police officer. The complaint was forwarded to the Internal Complaints Commission and subsequently a criminal case was registered by the CB-CID.

Murugan was booked under Section 354 (outraging the modesty of a woman by criminal force) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 4 of the Tamil Nadu Act Prohibiting Harassment of Women, among other sections . An indictment was filed in the trial court.

Earlier this year, the Tamil Nadu government had allowed Murugan to retire on his retirement date, without prejudice to ongoing legal and disciplinary proceedings against him.

When the matter was heard before the 11th Metropolitan Magistrate N. Sulthan Aribeen recently, the retired officer did not appear. The magistrate then ordered him to appear on November 22.

As Murugan also failed to appear on that date, the magistrate said in a brief order: “The accused was absent. The case was published in order to frame charges and was specifically invited to appear before this court. Therefore, issue a no-bail arrest warrant.