The Madras High Court on Thursday directed the police to submit their response to a bail petition filed by former School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi in connection with the alleged Rs 400 crore private school recognition scam during the previous DMK regime.
The prosecutor also informed the court that the police had approached the special court dealing with Prevention of Corruption Act cases, seeking custody of Muthukumar, the second accused, and Saravanan, who worked as his driver. Both had surrendered on Wednesday, according to the submission.
Appearing for Mahesh, senior advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul submitted that his client had been in judicial custody since October 26. With the second accused having surrendered, he argued, there was no further need to keep the former minister in custody.
Another senior advocate, P Wilson, contended that the circumstances surrounding the case had changed since the rejection of Mahesh’s anticipatory bail application.
He pointed out that the earlier decision had taken into consideration the fact that Muthukumar was absconding. Since Muthukumar had subsequently surrendered, Wilson argued that the grounds on which anticipatory bail had been denied no longer remained the same.
Meanwhile, a special court in Chennai on Thursday authorised the Central Crime Branch (CCB) to take DMK functionary and former DMDK MLA V Muthukumar into custody for five days for interrogation.
Special court judge L S Sathyamoorthy permitted the police to question Muthukumar until November 16. The accused had surrendered on October 29, as stated in the court proceedings.
The court further allowed Muthukumar’s lawyer to remain present during the interrogation as an observer and instructed the investigating officers to ensure that he was not subjected to harassment. His judicial custody was also extended until November 26.