The Madras High Court on Thursday (October 29) heard sharp arguments over the manner in which former Tamil Nadu school education minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi was arrested earlier this week, as his plea to quash the FIR against him came up before Justice V. Lakshminarayanan. Senior counsel P. Wilson, appearing for the DMK leader, questioned whether the Central Crime Branch (CCB) was justified in arresting his client from a lawyer's office without allowing him time to even read the court order that had dismissed his anticipatory bail plea that morning.

Source: LiveLaw

Wilson told the court that Mahesh was at his office on Nelson Manickam Road in Chennai at about 3 p.m. on Monday (October 26), discussing the next legal steps, when the police arrived. "About three vans of 40 policemen came to our office. They blocked the entrance, barged into the office and arrested him... This happened in the middle of the consultation. Milord, are we living in a police state?" he argued, insisting there was no urgency that required an arrest inside an advocate's office and that some decorum was warranted.

The prosecution disputed that account. State Public Prosecutor R. John Sathyan and Additional Public Prosecutor Arun Anbumani told the court that the police were conscious of the law that an accused cannot be arrested inside an advocate's office, that the team waited outside for about 90 minutes, and that officers went inside only after being invited in. The investigating officer, an Assistant Commissioner of Police with the CCB, told the court he had material to show he was invited inside. The court noted that the special court's record showed the arrest as having taken place outside the advocate's office.

Justice Lakshminarayanan directed that the CCTV footage from the lawyer's office be produced along with its audio recording, after noting that the footage placed before the court on Thursday carried visuals but no audio. The hearing on the quash plea was adjourned to November 10.

Source: LiveLaw

Thursday's hearing follows the earlier development in the case: on October 26, hours after the High Court dismissed his anticipatory bail petition, Mahesh was arrested by the Greater Chennai Police's CCB and, after questioning and a medical examination, was produced before a special court, which remanded him in judicial custody till November 6.

The case began with a complaint by D. C. Elangovan, secretary of the Federation of Associations of Private Schools in Tamil Nadu, alleging that association office-bearers B. T. Arasakumar and Muthukumar collected more than Rs 100 crore from private school managements by promising government approvals. In court, the CCB has pegged the alleged collection at over Rs 400 crore, said to have been taken as a party fund from more than 177 private school managements in return for recognition, upgrades and planning approvals — allegations Mahesh has denied, calling the case political vendetta. Police have registered the case under Sections 316(5) and 318(4), read with Section 3(5), of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, and CCB teams searched nine locations in Chennai and Trichy, including four premises linked to Mahesh, on September 16. The allegations are under investigation and have not been proved in court.

Source: Careers360