Chennai, April 30 -- The Madras high court on Tuesday said that if Periyar University vice chancellor R Jagannathan did not cooperate in the investigation of a case registered against him under the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, or attempted to tamper with the evidence, the Tamil Nadu police was allowed to arrest him.

Justice P Velmurugan passed the orders on a criminal appeal filed by the state police in 2023 against the Salem judicial magistrate refusing to remand the vice-chancellor to judicial custody and granting him bail.

The judge said that while the judicial magistrate can refuse to remand the accused, it did not have the jurisdiction to grant bail since only a trial court can conduct a t...