CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has dismissed a writ appeal filed by senior police officer Pramod Kumar challenging a single judge’s order to hold a CBI inquiry in an extortion case against him. Pramod Kumar, then Inspector General of Police, West Zone, along with four others, is facing charges of extorting one of the accused in the sensational Pazee scam which rocked western Tamil Nadu in 2011.
In an order issued on Tuesday, Justice CV Karthikeyan noted that when the single judge of the court was hearing the matter, Vellore unit of CB-CID had already pointed its needle of suspicion Pramod Kumar. “Therefore, CBI cannot be charged with prejudice. They did not pick and choose the writ petitioner from thin air and array him as an accused. CB-CID, Vellore, already had gathered materials against him. CBI consolidated those materials and gathered further materials and filed the final report,” he said in the order.
Dismissing the petitions, the judge said, “Transfer of investigation to CBI and subsequent investigation by CBI are both confirmed.”Another petition filed in this regard by then Inspector Mohan Raj, against the CBI investigation was also dismissed. It may be noted that K Mohanraj, K Kathiravan and A Kamalavalli started Pazee Forex Trading India Pvt Ltd., and invited deposits from people by promising high interest rate by depositing the investments in foreign exchange. About Rs 100 crore was collected, but failure of repayment landed the company in trouble.
Meanwhile, Kamalavalli claimed she was kidnapped by a gang for extorting money. In March 2010, she came out with accusations saying that two Inspectors V Mohan Raj and Shanmugaiah demanded `3 crore to settle the financial issues of the company. Mohan Raj later confessed to have taken the money from her under the instructions of Promod Kumar, then IG of West Zone.