Police custody cannot be ordered without sufficient ground.

D. Murugesan, J.

The appellant, the State represented by the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Q Branch, CBI, Dharmapuri, has approached this Court questioning the order passed in Crl.M.P.No.311 of 2007 in Spl.C.C.No.5 of 2003 in Split up Special C.C.No.1 of 2006 on the file of the learned Special Judge for Cases, Chennai at Poonamalleee.

2. The appellant had approached the Special Court seeking for police custody of the respondent by name Sundaramoorthy on the ground that he might have connection with the other absconding accused, viz., Navin @ Prasath, Chandra, wife of the accused and one Bharathi, who, according to the appellant, belong to Extremists and Terrorist Group and the respondent might have known the hiding places of the other three accused and the places where arms, ammunitions and explosives were hidden. The said application was dismissed by the Special Judge, as stated earlier. Hence, the present appeal is filed by the State.

3. The circumstances under which the appeal came to be filed may briefly to be stated as follows:

(i) On an information from one police constable attached to District Special Branch, Dharmapuri, on 211. 2002 regarding ten persons including three women were attending Karate practice for three days in a mango grove owned by one Murugesan of Salihjogipatti Village, a team headed by the Inspector of Police, Naxalite Special Duty Wing, Dharmapuri, conducted a search in the said mango grove and on enquiry of the villagers, the Inspector of Police came to know that those persons already left the mango grove because of objections raised by the local villagers. Subsequently, on the same day, the owner of the mango grove, viz., Murugesan was interrogated and the enquiry revealed that the land belonging to his wife was leased out to one Gurusamy, who had in turn, permitted those ten persons to conduct training. On 211. 2002, a search was conducted by the Inspector of Police in a Thatched hut owned by the said Gurusamy which lead to seizure of arms and explosive substances. Thereafter, one Martin Tamilselvan and Murugesan were arrested and were remanded to judicial custody in connection with the Uthangarai Police Crime No.1004 of 2002 under Sections 120-B r/w 25 of Arms Act, 4 and 5 of Explosive Substances Act. The said Murugesan was also added as an accused. Again on the same day at about 11.30 a.m., on information that about 25 persons were moving suspiciously with shoulder bags and fire arms towards Kallur village, the Inspector of Police searched in and around Periya Kanagampatti Village which resulted in an encounter at 1.45 p.m. between the group in which one Siva @ Partheeban died of bullet injury and four police personnel including Inspector Ekanthan sustained bullet injuries. Two another accused persons, viz., Mathiyan and Suresh were arrested and the remaining accused flood away from the scene of occurrence. Subsequently one Raja and Kumar @ Venkatesan @ Palamisamy were arrested by the police attached to Uthangarai Police Station in Crime No.1005 of 2002 for various offences including the offences under the Arms Act and Explosive Substance Act. After the occurrence on 211. 2002, some of the accused, viz., Balan, Duraisingavel, Sundaramoorthy, Vijaya @ Ramani, Chandra, Bharathi and Yasodha ran away from the Chinnakanagampatti village, where they were encountered. Based upon further information, on 211. 2002, the police was arrested one of the accused, viz., Balan. Still, four accused by name Navin @ Prasath @ Prasanth, Sundaramoorhty, Chandra and Bharathi were absconding.

.(ii) On completion of the investigation, the charge sheet was filed on 19.05.2003 against all the accused including the respondent herein and the same was taken cognizance by the Special Judge for Cases in Special C.C.No.5 of 2003. As four accused were absconding, the case was split up and was numbered as Split Special C.C.No.1 of 2006. As the respondent was also absconding, Non-Bailable Warrant was issued by t