MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Wednesday denied anticipatory bail to former superintendent of Madurai Central Prison M Urmila and five others in a case registered against them by the DVAC for alleged misappropriation of Rs 1.63 crore during the purchase of raw materials for manufacturing stationery articles in prison for supplying to government departments between 2016 and 2021.
According to the prosecution, the SP and two other prison officials conspired with some private contractors and manipulated prison records, faking the purchase of raw materials for stationary articles, thereby swindling the funds allotted for the purpose.
However, the SP denied the allegations claiming that the materials were purchased only based on the tender floated by the DGP and she is not directly involved in this process. The other five petitioners were S Srinivasan and his wife Shanthi, who are traders from Chennai and S Sankarasubbu, a businessman, his wife Dhanalakshmi and daughter Venkateshwari.
Justice N Anand Venkatesh, who heard the petitions, noted that although the case pertained to misappropriation of funds between 2016 and 2021, the prison records for the years 2016, 2017 and 2018 were not available and therefore the investigation is being conducted only for the years 2019 to 2021.
“The case in hand is only a tip of the iceberg and the actual loss sustained by the government will have to be still ascertained,” the judge observed.
