The special court for the trial of cases investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Coimbatore, on Wednesday, issued a non-bailable warrant (NBW) against IPS officer Pramod Kumar in an extortion case pending against him since 2012, which is linked to the multi-crore Paazee forex scam.
The Second Additional District Court in Coimbatore, which is handling CBI cases, issued the warrant against Kumar after he failed to appear for a hearing on Wednesday.
The court sources said that four other accused in the case— N. Rajendran, who worked as deputy superintendent of police at Tiruppur town; V. Mohanraj who was inspector of Central Crime Branch at Tiruppur; John Prabakar alias Annachi, a friend of the IPS officer from Mylapore; and N. Senthil Kumar, a resident of Tiruppur,— appeared for the hearing on Wednesday.
Mr. Kumar’s counsel sought one week time to appear, but the court declined the plea. Though the court allowed time till 3.30 p.m. Mr. Kumar did not appear, following which the warrant was issued, sources added.
The warrant said that Mr. Kumar, who is posted as Inspector General of Police (IGP) of Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Papers Limited, Karur, stands charged with offences under Sections 120 B read with 347, 384, 506 (I), of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 8, 10, 13 (2) read with 13 (1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
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The court directed the Deputy IGP, CBI (Economic Offences Wing), Chennai, to arrest Kumar and produce him before it. The court has posted the next hearing on October 27.
The case is linked to another case registered by the Tiruppur Central Crime Branch against Paazee Forex Trading India Private Limited in 2009 for having cheated depositors to the tune of ₹ 930.71 crore. A. Kamalavalli, one of the directors of the firm, had gone missing and later appeared before the police on her own. It was alleged that the woman was abducted and released on payment of a few crores of rupees as ransom and also to help the firm in the scam. It was alleged that some police officers were involved in the crime.
The case was transferred to the CBI in 2011 and the agency arrested Mr. Kumar, who had been serving as the IGP West Zone, in 2012. The CBI filed a chargesheet against the five accused in 2013 while a fifth person, namely inspector Shanmugiah turned approver.
A special court in Coimbatore had sentenced Kamalavalli and another director of the firm K. Mohanraj to undergo 27 years of rigorous imprisonment in the forex scam in August 2022, besides imposing a fine of ₹85.87 crore each on them.
