Police fail to apprehend chief operating officer of a media institute, accused in a cheque dishonour case, despite court issuing arrest warrant and complainant informing of his whereabouts; MiD DAY ensures he's arrested
Police fail to apprehend chief operating officer of a media institute, accused in a cheque dishonour case, despite court issuing arrest warrant and complainant informing of his whereabouts; MiD DAY ensures he's arrested
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Jude Devdas, chief operating officer of Indian Institute of Journalism and New Media (IIJNM), was finally taken into custody yesterday in a cheque bounce case amounting to Rs 18.75 lakh.
Even as E Mani, the complainant in the case, has been running from pillar to post to get justice for the past four years, the police were still unable to arrest the accused after the court issued an arrest warrant a month ago. 
In the cooler: Soon after Jude Devdas was arrested, cops produced him
before the assistant city magistrate who remanded him to judicial custody
till Monday. Pic/Ramesh HS
Mani then approached MiD DAY, informing of the whereabouts of the accused, and this paper traced Jude, after which he was arrested.
The court had issued the warrant on April 28, but the police did not arrest him despite Mani tipping them off that the accused was at his office at Kalyana Nagar.
After the complainant approached us, we collected a copy of the warrant from the court and traced Jude to handover the arrest warrant. The Bharathi Nagar police, taking cue from this, swung into action and took Jude into custody. He has been produced before an Assistant City Magistrate (ACM) and is currently in judicial custody till Monday.
'It's shocking'
"I was really shocked at the hesitation the police showed to arrest him. Jude was very much around and was not absconding, as claimed by the cops. The police on the other hand could act only when the media appeared on the scene," said Mani.
Two days before his arrest (May16), MiD DAY directed Mani to show the warrant to Police Commissioner Jyothi Prakash Mirji, who assured him that Jude would be apprehended immediately.
However, even after his assurances, no action had been taken. On enquiring about the lack of action, Mirji said, "There may be something wrong in the system. Let me look into it before making any comment."
Earlier report
This paper had carried a story on October 2009, in which it reported that Mani had supplied computers worth Rs 23 lakh to IIJNM in 2006. Mani was then asked to loan the instruction Rs 18.75 lakh, on the assurance that he would be given additional business once construction of the building was completed.
A cheque had also been issued in the name of the institution for the same amount during that period, which was not honoured.
After the cheque bounced, the accused avoided Mani for four years, hence he approached the court and got an arrest warrant and approached the Bharathi Nagar police station.
However, the police told him to locate the accused and they would follow up with arresting him. Despite doing as advised, the police hesitated to do the needful. It was then, Mani decided to approach MiD DAY for help.
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