Chennai. OCT 8:
The Madras High Court on Wednesday adjourned to October 12, hearing in the Rs.100 crore private school case against former DMK Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi after asking him to file an anticipatory bail on his plea seeking to quash the FIR filed against him.
When the plea came up for hearing a week after the court refused to grant any interim relief before Justice V. Lakshminarayanan, Senior Advocate and Rajya Sabha MP P.Wilson contended that the required approval under Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act was not obtained by the proper authority making the proceedings against him illegal.
He also submitted that the petitioner has been cooperating with the investigation. It was also pointed out to the court that the police has not filed their counter in the case yet. On these grounds, the court may pass orders directing the police to not take coercive steps against the petitioner.
Intervening, Public Prosecutor John Sathyan submitted that a questionnaire was given to the petitioner and that no coercive steps are taken yet. After he sought for time to file the counter, the judge suggested filing of an anticipatory bail and that he would consider it.
After hearing the submissions from both sides, the Court posted the matter to October 10 directing the respondent to file their counter.
It may be noted that two weeks after raids by police and questioning and a day after the court had refused interim relief on October 1, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) stepped in to probe the money laundering angle in the alleged Rs.100 crore private school cheating case involing former Tamil Nadu School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi.
The ED took up the probe based on the FIR registered by the CCB police on September 16 to examine the alleged illegal financial transactions and the money trail in the case and the possible money laundering angle.
The ED has obtained the case documents from the CCB police and is examining the financial transactions connected with the alleged collection of money from private schools promising permanent recognitions and other statutory government approvals. The agency is also planning to conduct searches at premises linked to Anbil Mahesh and B.T.Arasakumar, cited as the key accused and was the first person to be arrested in the case, as part of its investigation.
The ED comes into the picture a day after Justice V. Lakshminarayanan refused to grant relief to the former Minister and directed the State government to file a counter within one week.
Based on a complaint from Federation of Associations of Private School in Tamil Nadu Secretary T.C.Elangovan that key accused B.T.Arasakumar (59) had collected large sums of money from private school managements promising to secure government approvals and clearances, including Permanent Recognition, School Upgradation and building-related approvals, police booked him under several sections.
Arasakumar, who claimed himself as President of an unregistered Association, was arrested on June 27 and was remanded in judicial custody. He was subsequently detained under the Goondas Act which was subsequently quashed by the High Court. Widening the probe, police arrested two more people in the case.