Karnan sent to jail, complains of chest pain

Arrested former Calcutta High Court judge C S Karnan was today brought here from Chennai and taken to the Presidency Correctional home (jail) where he complained of chest pain. A team of state CID officers brought him by an Air India flight, a senior police officer said.

Karnan, dressed in white shirt and trouser, came out of the airport escorted by policemen in civil dress. He was whisked away by the police when the reporters tried to approach him. Tight security arrangements were made at the airport where senior police officers, including Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar, were present.

"His (Karnan's) medical tests were completed at the airport and he was taken straightaway to the jail," the officer said. A senior official at the Presidency Jail said 62-year-old Karnan complained of chest pain soon after he was taken inside and a team of doctors from the jail hospital was examining him.

"He is old and seems to be unwell too. We do not want to take any chance. An ECG was done on him," he said, adding Karnan might be moved to a state-run hospital if anything wrong is found in his medical report.

Karnan, who had been evading arrest since the May 9 Supreme Court order awarding a six-month jail term, was arrested last night by a team of West Bengal CID from a private resort at Malumichampatti, about six km from Coimbatore, where he was "hiding" for the past few days.

The former high court judge was brought to Chennai from Coimbatore by a private airline past midnight yesterday and later accommodated in the retiring room in the airport complex amid tight security.

Three police teams from Kolkata were camping in Coimbatore who traced Karnan on the basis of his mobile phone calls. Tamil Nadu police provided the technical support to trace his whereabouts, a senior local police officer had said.

Karnan, who earned the dubious distinction of being the first sitting high court judge to be awarded a jail term by the apex court, had retired from service on June 12 as a fugitive.

A seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice of India J S Khehar had sentenced him to six months imprisonment for contempt of court.

Three days after the sentence, Karnan had moved the apex court for staying his arrest. He had enrolled as an advocate with the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu in 1983 and was appointed a judge of the Madras High Court in 2009. He was transferred to the Calcutta High Court on March 11, 2016.