CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Thursday directed the police to reply to the petition filed by former school education minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi seeking bail in the alleged Rs 400 crore private school recognition scam during the previous DMK government.
Justice V Lakshminarayanan adjourned the hearing to November 17 after state public prosecutor R John Sathyan sought time to file a counter-affidavit. He also stated that the police had filed an application in the special court for Prevention of Corruption Act cases seeking police custody of Muthukumar, the second accused in the case, and Saravanan, driver of Muthukumar, who surrendered on Wednesday.
Senior counsel Neeraj Kishan Kaul, appearing for Mahesh, said the former minister has been in jail since October 26 and with the second accused having surrendered, further custody of Mahesh would not be required. Senior counsel P Wilson, who also appeared for Mahesh, submitted that the circumstances have changed since the anticipatory bail application was rejected. Stating that the court had cited the absconding of Muthukumar for denying the pre-arrest bail, the senior counsel noted that he had surrendered now.
Police get custody of ex-MLA Muthukumar
A special court in Chennai on Thursday granted five-day custody of DMK functionary and former DMDK MLA V Muthukumar to the Central Crime Branch (CCB) for questioning. Muthukumar surrendered on October 29. Special court judge L S Sathyamoorthy permitted CCB to interrogate Muthukumar till November 16. The court allowed Muthukumar’s counsel to observe the interrogation and directed the police not to subject him to harassment. His judicial custody was extended till November 26.
