Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi
CHENNAI: Former Tamil Nadu school education minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi on Thursday wondered why the owners of the private schools that have alleged to have paid bribe to secure the 20-year recognition for their schools have not been arrested or at least added as accused in the Rs 100crore private schools cheating case. 2 — Muthukumar — surrendered two days after Anbil Mahesh’s arrest. “Under the BNSS, the police could take an accused into custody for interrogation for up to 60 days. Recording the submissions, special judge L S Sathiyamurthy deferred his orders on the bail application to Nov 10.
Granting bail at this stage would affect the investigation,” he said. Those who allegedly paid bribes, which is an offence, are all living in their homes. But why those who had admitted paying bribes had not been arrested, the senior counsel asked. The absconding accused no. Anbil Mahesh had provided shelter to him. Muthukumar was the person who collected the money. His driver Saravanan had allegedly taken the money to Anbil Mahesh’s residence. The police had video evidence in this regard. Saravanan was currently absconding, he added. As fresh evidence had emerged during the investigation, Anbil Mahesh needed to be interrogated again in custody.
The Chennai Central Crime Branch (CCB) police have not taken any against them while they have arrested the former minister and subjected him to custodial interrogation, senior advocate Abdu Kumar Rajarathnam for Anbil Mahesh argued on his bail application before the Chennai special court for corruption cases.
Opposing the bail application, state public prosecutor John Sathyan submitted that initially, the complainant was unaware of Anbil Mahesh’s involvement and only after investigation did his involvement come to light. The case was not politically motivated.