AICC national secretary Mayura Jayakumar moves Madras High Court to quash criminal intimidation case

All India Congress Committee (AICC) national secretary S. Mayura Jayakumar has approached the Madras High Court with a plea to quash a charge sheet filed against him by the Peelamedu police in Coimbatore city for abusing and issuing life threat to a fellow party member at the airport on November 17, 2024.

Justice N. Sathish Kumar on Friday ordered notices, returnable by October 10, to the police as well as the complainant P. Kovai Selvan seeking their response to the quash petition. He also dispensed with the personal appearance of the petitioner before the trial court until further orders.

In his police complaint, Mr. Selvan had said he visited the Coimbatore airport on November 17, 2024 to meet AICC general secretary K.C. Venugopal who was travelling from Palakkad to Mumbai with a stopover at Coimbatore. Many other party cadre had also accompanied the complainant.

When the complainant stepped out of the airport building after meeting Mr. Venugopal, Mr. Jayakumar and his men attempted to attack. They also hurled abuses and threatened to kill the complainant when the security personnel at the airport intervened and prevented the assault, the complaint read.

The police had registered a First Information Report (FIR) against Mr. Jayakumar and his supporters Tamilselvan and Krishnamoorthy under Sections 351(2) (criminal intimidation) and 296(b) (uttering obscene words) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita on November 22, 2024 and filed a charge sheet too.

Claiming the charge sheet had been filed without conducting a proper investigation into the issue, the petitioner said, the allegations in the complaint do not make out a case against the petitioner and that he had been unnecessarily roped into the “false” case without any material whatsoever.

During the course of hearing of the quash plea, the petitioner’s counsel stated it was an ordinary quarrel between the members belonging to the same political party but the contents of the complaint had been exaggerated in order to attract the criminal offences.

However, after reading out the cuss words allegedly used by the petitioner against the complainant, the judge decided to take a call on the matter only after ordering notices to the police as well as the complainant.