The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), on Wednesday, filed its first charge sheet in the multi-crore Paazee forex scam case.
It charged three police officers, in the report filed before the Special Court for CBI cases here, with wrongful confinement, extortion and misuse of official position.
The officials indicted are former Inspector-General of Police, West Zone, Pramod Kumar (an IPS officer currently under suspension), N. Rajendran, Deputy Superintendent of Police and Inspector V. Mohan Raj. Another accused, Inspector Shanmugiah, has already turned an approver in the case.
Thousands of investors filed a complaint against the Paazee forex firm accusing it of having defrauded them and failing to ensure return on investments.
Investigations revealed that thousands of investors from across Tamil Nadu were cheated of more than Rs.780 crore.
The case was transferred to CBI, which arrested three directors of the firm from their hideout in the North East. Meanwhile, there were complaints that one of the directors of the firm, Kamalavalli, was abducted and held in wrongful confinement for extortion, allegedly by police officers, after assuring her that they would help the directors out. It was said in a complaint that Rs. 2.85 crore was taken from the directors.
After further investigations, the CBI arrested Mr. Pramod Kumar and the other police officials.
The charge sheet, running into several hundred pages, listed 81 witnesses and included 356 documents against the IG, DSP, Inpector and two other individuals — John Prabhakaran and Senthilkumar — who acted on behalf of the police officials, collecting the extortion amount and helping in parking them.
The CBI has charged the five accused under Sections 120 B (Conspiracy) read with 384 (extortion), 347 (wrongful confinement), 506 (criminal intimidation), 507 (wrongful confinement through anonymous communication) of the Indian Penal Code, and Sections 13 (2) read with 13 (1) (d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
