KOLKATA/CHENNAI: A day after the Supreme Court ordered the arrest of Calcutta high court judge , Justice C S Karnan , police teams from Bengal and Tamil Nadu were unable to locate him on Wednesday. The judge had left Kolkata for Chennai just a few hours before the apex court order .

A five-member Bengal police team led by DGP (home guard) Raj Kanojia reached Chennai early on Wednesday and met Chennai police commissioner Karan Singha seeking logistic support to track Justice Karnan. A joint team of cops searched several premises but failed to trace the judge.

Justice Karnan's lawyer, Peter Ramesh Kumar told TOI that a team of around 50 policemen had met him around noon seeking information on the judge. He claimed the judge had moved to a temple in Kalahasti near Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh, but the police team that went to Kalahasthi returned empty-handed. There were also rumours that he was in Tindivanam in Tamil Nadu, but it, too, proved to be a wrong lead. The police are trying to contact the government driver who is at the wheels of the judge's car.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court had sentenced the sitting judge to undergo imprisonment for six months, and made it clear that he should be arrested immediately. The apex court had directed the director-general of police in West Bengal to execute the order.

Till a couple of hours after the SC's order, Justice Karnan, who was staying at the Tamil Nadu government state house in Chennai, kept meeting mediapersons and visitors. He went incommunicado when the full import of the apex court ruling dawned on everyone. The cops on Wednesday spoke to Manik Raj, another lawyer of Justice Karnan, who was staying at the same guest house.

A group of lawyers staged a protest in front of the guest house claiming that Justice Karnan was being victimized.

