CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Thursday rejected a writ plea from G Sampath Kumar, IPS, who had been suspended during his tenure as investigating officer in the IPL match-betting case in February 2014, on a charge of collecting bribes from bookies to hold back the involvement of a few persons in the scam, to quash the criminal proceedings pending before the Special Court, constituted under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The petitioner was arrayed as the fourth accused in the case on the ground that he, while discharging his duty as SP, Q Branch CID, had allegedly abused his position and involved in extortion through Mahender Singh Ranka (A-1) and his associates S Nemichand (A-2) and Hirakumar Jambar (A-3). He had collected `1.35 crore from Gouthamchandran Nimani, Mahavirchand and Pappu alias Kutty under threat of prosecution in the IPL betting case and gave false promise to save them. Mahender Singh Ranka gave `60 lakh to the petitioner.
Dismissing the petition, the judge observed that the evidence in the case revealed that on the alleged date the petitioner had deposited `15 lakh in his account and drawn a DD in favour of one Srimathi Thirumagal.
The sanction order for prosecution was already obtained from the DGP, which spoke about all these materials. It would be futile to contend that no offence under PC Act was made out against the petitioner. All materials collected during investigation were done with mala fide intention to fix the petitioner, the judge said.
A few infractions or commissions in the process of investigation will not vitiate the proceedings to quash the same. The petitioner could put forth his contentions during trial. Dismissing the petition, the court directed the lower court to conclude the trial within 6 months.
Promised offenders safety from law
The IPS officer, who was the investigation officer, is accused of extorting money to the tune of `1.35 crore from the bookies to hold back the involvement of a few persons in the IPL match-betting case in February 2014.