The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Friday reserved orders on the batch of petitions filed by Income Tax officials who faced a hostile reaction from alleged supporters of Minister V. Senthilbalaji when they went to search the premises of his acquaintances in Karur district. They sought the cancellation of the bail granted to their attackers.
Justice G. Ilangovan reserved orders on the batch of petitions after hearing elaborate arguments in the case. Earlier, the court had directed the State to submit documents of cases pertaining to the attack on the Income Tax officials.
In their petitions the IT officials said, on May 26, a large group of people gathered on one of the premises and verbally abused them. Certain confidential documents and the department seals were also snatched from them. They were attacked and four officials were admitted to hospital. They resumed the searches after they were provided security by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel, they said.
The officials said that complaints were lodged with the police and cases registered against those who were involved in the attack. The accused were arrested and remanded in judicial custody.
However, the accused were granted bail by the Judicial Magistrate-I in Karur in a mechanical manner. Though permission was sought by their counsel to file an intervention application, the request was denied. The fact that the Income Tax officials had been manhandled and roughed up was not considered at all, they said and demanded the cancellation of the bail granted to their attackers.
