The Madras High Court bench on Wednesday directed the Director General of Police (DGP) to submit the details of LLB centres in Tamil Nadu along with the details of the people who run the institutions.
Justice N. Kirubakaran issued the direction after the Madurai police exposed the modus operandi of a couple who posed as advocates and extorted money from several house owners in the city and the suburbs. The judge has also instructed the DGP to elaborate on the functioning of the LLB centres.
In her petition, B. Jothi, who claimed to be an advocate, said she had rented a house in Thiruparankundram, paid the rent without fail, but was asked to vacate by the landlord within a week on January 27, 2013. She further alleged that the landlord threatened her and her family with dire consequences if they did not vacate the house. On May 21, the landlord broke the lock of her house with the help of hooligans when she was away from her home and removed all her belongings including her law books, cash amounting to Rs 3.16 lakh and 24 sovereigns of gold, she alleged.
She had moved the court seeking a direction to the Thiruparankundram police to take action against her landlord.
However, additional government pleader Ayiram Selvakumar, filed a counter petition at thecourt following an inquiry conducted by the Thiruparankundram police. The report revealed that Mrs Jothi and her husband P. Bharathi Ravichandran had filed several similar cases with the city police. The couple were said to be vexatious litigants who filed false cases against house owners in order to extort money from them.
Mrs Jothi was yet to complete her law degree (BL) and Mr Ravichandran, a school dropout, had duped several persons by posing as advocate Jothi Bharathi, the counter claimed. There were at least three criminal complaints against Mr Ravichandran, the counter revealed.
