After evading arrest for over 40 days, former Calcutta High Court judge CS Karnan finally walked into the police net on Tuesday as he could not keep away from making calls to his friends and associates.

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Justice Karnan, who went underground a day after the seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court on May 9 sentenced him to six months' imprisonment for contempt of court, neither made any phone calls nor received one as long as he was staying in Kochi, said Karnan's counsel Mathews J Nedumpara. "However, after moving to Coimbatore, the judge started making calls to his associates and friends whose phones were already tracked by the police," he said.

On May 9, when the Apex Court directed the West Bengal police to take Justice Karnan into custody, he was in Chennai interacting with his friends and reporters. By the time the West Bengal police team landed here to arrest him, he had made good his escape. The five-member West Bengal police team, headed by DGP Raj Kanojia, then rushed to Srikalahasti temple at Chittoor district in Andhra, about 120 km from Chennai, tracking the retired judge's mobile phone signal. But soon his both the mobile numbers were switched off and he went out of radar even as one of his associate indicated that he might have crossed the country's border.

Sources said the retired judge stayed in Chennai, where West Bengal police team was also camping since May 10, for a while before secretly shifting to Kochi in Kerala. He had stayed in Kochi till last week before moving to Coimbatore.

Kanojia said Justice Karnan was arrested after tracking the calls made by him to his associates. "We knew about his location three days back. We were tracking phone calls of people close to him," he said. He termed the Justice Karnan case as the most difficult and unique case handled by him.