`ONLY GOVT CAN INITIATE ACTION' - Police can't attach properties of accused on their own, says HC
A Subramani
Chennai:
Putting an end to the police practice of attaching the immovable properties of people charged with offences such as chit fund fraud, the Madras high court has said such a “backdoor“ attachment was not contemplated in any law, and that police could attach only by writing to the government.
Justice P N Prakash, passing orders on a petition filed by a chit fund manager charged with duping depositors of `1.7 crore between 2010 and 2013, recently said, “It is only the state or central government that can initiate action by approaching the district judge of the area where the accused resides or carries on business. The police officer has no role to play in this. He can, at the most, submit a report to the state or cen tral government requesting it to initiate action under the Criminal Law Amendment Ordinance. “ V Sundaram and Malliga were conducting unregistered chits and had collected subscriptions from 35 people to the tune of `1.66 crore. After they defaulted on repayments, the economic offences wing police of Kancheepuram district reg istered a case. On January 8, 2015 the investigating officer wrote to the sub-registrar-IV of Kancheepuram asking the officer to mark properties owned by the accused as “encumbered“ assets. Intimating the officer that police had “attached“ the property , the investigating officer said if any further transaction is allowed in the property , it would adversely affect the probe and result in unnecessary litigation.
The accused duo moved the court saying they were not able to sell any of their properties as the sub-registrar was refus ing to accept any document for registration.
Justice Prakash appointed advocate Abbudukumar Raja rathinam as amicus curiae and said: “This court was in deed wondering as to from where the police officer de rived power to send such a com munication handing out a veiled threat to the registration authorities.“
Rejecting the officer's claim that the letter was sent to the sub-registrar to protect the in terest of the subscribers, the judge said the officer used the communication to indirectly attach the properties of the ac cused through the backdoor.
Builder hacked to death at toll plaza over land dispute
Chennai:
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Three men hacked to death a 51-year-old builder from Anna Nagar near a toll plaza in Chengalpet, about 60km from here, on Thursday , police said The killers attacked S Abinesh Babu with sickles and cleavers in full public view, allegedly over a land dispute, and sped away on a bike, an officer said.
A team of the Chengalpet town police soon arrived and sent Abinesh Babu to the Gov ernment Hospital in Chengal pet where he was declared dead on arrival. The assailants may have followed Abinesh Babu from Chennai, police said, adding that they were scanning footage from CCTV cameras at the toll plaza to identify the killers.
Police said Babu, who ran Narayana Guru Builders, was headed to Gingee in Tiruvannamalai district in his Mercedes Benz (TN 09 DE 2229) with his driver M Dinesh Kumar.Around 1.15pm, they stopped near the plaza.As his employer stayed near the car sipping a tender coconut, Kumar went to pay the vendor.
As he was returning, Dinesh Kumar told police, he saw three men attacking his employer with cleavers and sickles. He began running towards them, but the assailants sped off, he told police.
Preliminary inquiries re vealed that Abinesh Babu, a resident of Shanti Colony in Anna Nagar, had already lodged a complaint with the CCB saying a lawyer, Mohan, had encroached upon his property worth `2.5 crore.
