The special court for the trial of cases investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Coimbatore on Tuesday framed charges against Inspector General of Police Pramod Kumar and four others in a 2012 extortion case, linked to the multi-crore Paazee forex scam.
Judge S. Govindharajan read out the charges against Mr. Kumar, who is the first accused, and four others who were present at the court.
Mr. Kumar, currently posted as IGP of Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Papers Limited at Karur, and the others, namely N. Rajendran, who worked as deputy superintendent of police at Tiruppur town; V. Mohanraj, who was inspector of Central Crime Branch at Tiruppur; John Prabakar alias Annachi, a friend of the IPS officer from Mylapore; and N. Senthil Kumar, a resident of Tiruppur, denied the charges against them.
The judge directed the prosecution to begin the trial and asked the latter to submit the list of witnesses in the next hearing posted on December 8.
Public prosecutor Surendra Mohan, who appeared for the CBI, said all the five accused appeared before the court in the forenoon. The hearing was postponed to evening after Mr. Kumar’s counsel submitted that the Madras High Court was hearing a petition, pleading to quash the case against him. The court framed charges against the five accused in the evening after the High Court dismissed the quash petition, Mr. Mohan said.
The Central Crime Branch, Tiruppur, registered a case against Paazee Forex Trading India Private Limited in 2009 for having cheated depositors to the tune of ₹930.71 crore. A. Kamalavalli, one of the directors of the firm, had gone missing and later appeared before the police on her own. It was alleged she was abducted and released on payment of a few crores of rupees as ransom and also to save the firm in the scam. The five accused, including Mr. Kumar were allegedly involved in the crime as per the chargesheet filed by the CBI.
