Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Pramod Kumar, who is an accused in an extortion case that is linked to the multi-crore Paazee forex scam, appeared before the Second Additional District Court in Coimbatore, which handles CBI cases, on Friday.
Mr. Kumar appeared before judge S. Govindharajan after the latter issued a non-bailable warrant (NBW) against him on Wednesday.
The judge recalled the NBW on the condition that Mr. Kumar, who is now posted as the Inspector General of Police (IGP) of Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Papers Limited at Karur, should appear before it without fail on November 4.
Earlier in the day, Mr. Kumar’s counsel submitted a petition before the court, seeking to discharge him from the case before the framing of charges. The court posted to hear the discharge petition on October 31. The Economic Offences Wing of the CBI, which investigated the 2012 case, is expected to file a petition countering Mr. Kumar’s discharge petition before October 31.
The court has already dismissed discharge petitions of the four other accused in the 2012 case, 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.
As per the charge sheet filed by the CBI in the case in 2013, Mr. Kumar is an accused under Sections 120 B read with 347, 384, 506 (I), of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 8, 10, 13 (2) read with 13 (1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The case is related to another case registered by the Tiruppur Central Crime Branch 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 that the woman was abducted and released on payment of a few crores of rupees as ransom and also to help the firm in the scam. It was alleged that some police officers were involved in the crime.
The case was transferred to the CBI in 2011 and the agency arrested Mr. Kumar, who had been serving as the IGP, West Zone, in 2012.
