The Chennai High Court has ordered the Special Investigation Team to respond to a petition filed by Veeramani’s daughter Archana, who sought an inquiry into the human rights violations allegedly committed against her at the Special Investigation Team office after she was taken off a flight while she was about to travel abroad.
Veeramani, the owner of Gem Granites, who has been arrested in a case of sexually assaulting minor girls, is in prison. The Special Investigation Team is investigating the case. In this situation, on October 23, Special Investigation Team officials took Veeramani’s daughter Archana, who was due to travel by flight to see her son in Singapore, in for questioning.
In this situation, Veeramani’s daughter Archana filed a petition in the Chennai High Court seeking an order to investigate both the fact that airline staff had removed him from the plane without giving any reason and the human rights violations he suffered at the Special Investigation Team office.
In that petition, she stated that the Special Investigation Team took her away without any summons, court warrant, or look-out notice, and that, having been suffering from ill health for the past 20 years, she fainted at the Special Investigation Team office and was later sent to the hospital.
Furthermore, after being admitted to the hospital, the Special Investigation Team has sent a summons requiring her to appear on October 25. She had said that the summons should be quashed and that an order should be issued to return the documents seized from her, including the laptop, during the investigation.
When this case came up for hearing before Judge V. Lakshminarayanan, the petitioner’s side requested that an inquiry be ordered into the fact that Archana, who has not been accused in this case, was taken away in the name of questioning and made to wait for a long time without even being allowed to use the restroom, causing her to faint at the Special Investigation Team office itself.
The police stated that when they went to the petitioner’s house to serve a summons for inquiry, the petitioner was not present, so the summons was served on the house guard, and that the police also sent the summons to the petitioner’s WhatsApp number. They further stated that after that, the petitioner’s mobile phone was switched off. They also said that, following information that the petitioner was leaving India, they went to the airport and brought him in for questioning.
During the inquiry, it was stated on behalf of the petitioner that the allegations were false, and a request was made for time to respond in this regard.
The judge, after recording arguments from both sides, ordered the Special Investigation Team to respond to this petition and adjourned the hearing to November 17.
