The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Court reserves orders

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Wednesday, Mar 19, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Court reserves orders

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: Justice M. Jeyapaul of the Madras High Court on Tuesday reserved orders on a petition seeking to cancel the bail granted to former MP K.C. Palaniswamy in a case relating to the alleged siphoning off of Rs.78 crore belonging to a company from its bank account.

The High Court had earlier granted interim stay of an order of bail to Mr. Palaniswamy by the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Egmore, Chennai.

In the petition seeking to cancel the bail, the Inspector of Police, Central Crime Branch, Team 1, Egmore, submitted that in its complaint, Cheran Enterprises (P) Ltd. (CEPL), had said Mr. Palaniswamy, who was also a former MLA, had siphoned off Rs.78 crore from the company’s bank account by diverting it to the accounts of other accused.

The petition said the former MP refused to provide information on where the money diverted was kept or for what purpose it was utilised. Investigation was in a preliminary stage. The probe was being hampered due to non-cooperation of Mr. Palaniswamy. One K.K. Shiva Kumar was secured only on March 6 and he was yet to be completely interrogated. The bail order was liable to be cancelled as it was passed without considering the supervening factors. The bail order was bad in law and contrary to the law laid down by the Supreme Court.

The lower court failed to consider the fact that investigation into the complaint was in a preliminary stage. Huge sums of money were involved and yet to be traced. If the accused was enlarged on bail, he would not cooperate with investigation.

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