CHENNAI: CBI has registered a fresh case against retired IG and former head of Idol wing CID, AG Pon Manickavel, for allegedly falsely implicating former DSP Kader Batcha in a criminal case leading to his arrest.
While the FIR was registered under 13 sections including criminal intimidation and criminal conspiracy on Thursday, CBI officials descended on the Kottivakkam residence of the retired IG on Saturday morning and questioned him till 4pm, sources said.
CBI said it had registered a case after conducting a preliminary inquiry based on the allegations made by Kader Batcha in two petitions, complying with an order of the Madras High Court. The agency had earlier re-registered a 2017 FIR filed by the idol wing in 2022 regarding allegations of idol wing cops’ involvement with international smugglers Subash Kapoor and Deenadayalan.
The case itself was registered by CBI based on a 2017 FIR by the idol wing CID which accused its then DSP Kader Batcha and two other policemen of robbing idols and selling it for Rs 15 lakh through Deenadayalan in 2008.
Batcha had approached the high court with the charge that Pon Manickavel had helped Kapoor and Deenadayalan escape from the cases. CBI was directed by the court to determine the facts of the case.
Speaking to reporters outside his house after the CBI officials left, Pon Manickavel said the officers asked him details about the idol smuggling cases and had a discussion. When asked if CBI had arraigned him as an accused in the case, he said the agency had just started its investigation after re-registering the 2017 FIR by the idol wing CID and it would not be right to project him as an accused.
Rejecting Batcha’s charges of his proximity to Kapoor and Deenadayalan, Manickavel pointed out how he had been appointed as special officer to probe idol smuggling cases by the high court itself, after retirement. Manickavel also claimed that all international and local accused in idol smuggling cases were “ganging up” against him in a bid to stop investigation in all cases filed by him.