CHENNAI: A sensational scam that surfaced in 2014 suggesting pilferage of huge quantities of Aavin milk ended up being a damp squib for the investigators as the Madras High Court discharged three primary accused in the case. Justice C T Selvam ordered the discharge of N Vaidhyanathan, his wife V Revathy and Abdul Rahim, while allowing a criminal review petition from them recently. The judge’s order overruled the earlier order by a lower court in Villupuram, which had tried 25 people.
The case began on August 19, 2014, when a police team on a vehicle check near Govindapuram in Villupuram district intercepted two persons, both robbery suspects. On questioning, they told police about milk thefts from tankers making supplies to Aavin and adulteration by adding water to make up for the pilfered milk.
Vaidhyanathan and his wife were the owners of the transport company that ferried milk from procurement centres across the State to Aavin’s main unit in Chennai. Police probe later revealed that milk was pilfered over the years. A total of 25 people were booked and the case was subsequently transferred to the CB-CID, which arrested Vaidhyanathan. But the Madras High Court in December 2014 raised serious questions over the manner in which probe was carried out.
While declining the bail plea of Vaidyanathan, Justice P N Prakash said in the order that the CB-CID had “hurriedly completed” the investigation and the final report was also filed before the magistrate concerned arraigning only the owners of the transport firms and some others, besides drivers. The judge raised questions on why the role of Aavin officials was not investigated.
The way the case subsequently proceeded suggested that the apprehensions, raised by the Madras HC’s 2014 order, were true. On December 21, 2016, a magistrate court in Tindivanam acquitted the two robbery suspects from whom the police first learnt about irregularities in transportation of Aavin’s milk. Subsequent to the acquittal of these two, Vaidhyanathan, Revathy and Abdul Rahim moved the Chief Judicial Magistrate in Villupuram, where the trial was pending, seeking discharge. However, the trial court dismissed the petition and the three filed a revision petition in the Madras High Court.
They argued that the two accused, based on whose confessional statements the petitioners were arraigned, had been acquitted in the case by Tindivanam Judicial Magistrate.After perusing the available materials on record, Justice Selvam said acquittal of the two sounded a death-knell to the prosecution case.