NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday affirmed the High Court’s order directing Central Bureau of Investigation to probe into the collusion of former head of the idol wing police AG Ponn Manickavel in various idol theft cases. The High Court’s order was upheld by bench of Justices Krishna Murari and V Ramasubramanian.
A G Ponn Manickavel had approached Supreme Court against the Madras High Court’s order passed by the bench of Justice G Jayachandran. While directing for the probe, the judge had said that the same was needed to probe his role of arranging pardons for Deenadayalan, comments on foreign policy to camouflage his actions and preventing the recovery of idols which had been in the possession of Subhash Chandra Kapoor.
The judge’s order had been passed on a petition filed by suspended Deputy Superintendent of Police Kader Batcha who had sought an FIR to be registered by the CB-CID. Batcha contended he was falsely implicated by Manickavel in idol theft cases and had successfully recovered the idols and had also arrested culprits while he was in the idol wing.
The High Court while directing Central Bureau of Investigation to depute an officer not below the rank of DIG had said, “The probe should unravel the truth. It should lead to the arrest of the culprits and the recovery of other antique idols which are in the alleged possession/control of the prime accused Subhash Kapoor, the investigation against whom had come to a standstill in view of the opinion given by Manickavel.”