: Twenty days after assuming the role of a parent of a 34-year-old deaf-mute man, who was allegedly abducted by his former wife Priya Darshini in an attempt to swindle his vast properties, and ordering a CB-CID probe into the incident, the Madras High Court on Wednesday directed the authorities to transfer Manoj Rajan to the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, to gauge his mental development.
Justice P.N. Prakash also directed the State Nodal Officer, District Mental Health Programme, Tamil Nadu to liaise between the court and NIMHANS, and to coordinate process by visiting the institution.
Manoj Rajan, the only son of industrialist E.J. Rajan and the sole legal heir for properties worth crores of rupees, was kidnapped by his former wife who remarried him, soon after the death of his father.
The court made the observation on a plea moved by Ananth, who claimed to be the guardian of Manoj after he was allegedly kidnapped from a Charity Home for Mentally Retarded in Gudalur, Nilgiris, on May 4, 2016.
After the intervention of the High Court, police traced Manoj and lodged him back in the home on July 23. During the further course of hearing, it came to the light that when Manoj was in the custody of Priya Darshini, the title of 11,772 square feet property belonging to him was transferred to a third party and the transaction was registered even without original documents of the property.
The judge also passed a direction to transfer Manoj to a home managed by a private trust in Madurai with proper protection.
When the plea came up for hearing, noting that the mental status of Manoj Rajan had to be determined by a competent authority as that was essential for the just decision of the case , the judge directed the transfer to NIMHANS.
Justice Prakash further directed the Deputy Superintendent of Police, CB-CID to proceed with the investigation in all earnestness to recover the sum of Rs.1.67 crore, alleged to be received by Manoj in the dubious property transaction without giving any room for tampering and disappearance of evidence. The court then posted the case to September 2, for further hearing.
