COIMBATORE: Suspended IPS officer, P Pramod Kumar, effectively became free of all charges against him on Tuesday, when the CBI Court in Coimbatore closed the charge sheet against him.
The charge sheet was closed as the Supreme Court, in March 2015, ruled in favour of Pramod Kumar, who had raised objections to the Madras High Court shifting the case against him to the CBI without hearing him.
Pramod Kumar was the Inspector General of Police (West Zone) from September 2008 to February 2010. In 2009, the Economic Offences Wing registered a case against the directors of Paazee Forex Trading India Private Limited, which had allegedly defrauded thousands of investors of hundreds of crores of rupees.
One of the directors, Kamalavalli, alleged that four persons, including a Deputy Superintendent of Police, had abducted her in December 2009. This case was handed over to the CBCID.
In April 2011, Madras High Court ordered the CBI to take over the investigation of the kidnapping case. It had then already transferred the case of fraud against Paazee to the CBI.
During the investigation, the CBI added Pramod Kumar’s name to the charge sheet and booked him under IPC sections 84 (extortion) and 120(b) (criminal conspiracy) and the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The officer was arrested and suspended in May of 2012. He then moved the Supreme Court against the Madras High Court’s decision to transfer the case against him to the CBI without hearing him.
In March this year, the Supreme Court ruled in his favour and ordered that the High Court’s order transferring the case to the CBI be invalidated. Based on this order, N Muralidharan, Special Judge for CBI cases in Coimbatore, closed the charge sheet against Pramod Kumar.
Case File
Senior IPS officer and former IGP (West Zone) Pramod Kumar was booked for allegeldly extorting Rs 2.85 crore from the accused in the sensational Rs 1,600-crore Paazee financial scam. He was arrested by the CBI in June 2012 in connection with the case. The company, floated by a correspondent of a Tamil daily K Kathiravan.