Calling it the tip of an iceberg, Madras high court has declined to grant anticipatory bail to a former Madurai central prison superintendent and five others charged with causing loss of crores of rupees to the govt by fudging records pertaining to the supply of stationery articles to govt departments.

Justice N Anand Venkatesh dismissed the anticipatory bail petitions of Urmila, the then superintendent of Madurai Central Prison (current superintendent of Cuddalore Central Prison) and Sankarasubbu, Dhanalakshmi, Venkateshwari, Srinivasan and Shanthi who apprehended arrest by DVAC.

The judge observed that the enquiry was proposed to be done for the years 2016 to 2021. But, records were not available from 2016 to 2019.

He said, “The investigation officer must be given a free hand to decide as to whether the accused people are going to be called for inquiry or whether custodial interrogation is required. Granting anticipatory bail at this stage will affect the course of investigation.”

Some more time is required to verify records and figure out the actual misappropriation of govt funds, the judge observed.
The prosecution’s case is that certain prison officials in Madurai central prison manipulated prison records to make it appear that raw materials have been purchased from private individuals and supplied to the central prison.

An FIR was registered by DVAC officials against 11 people including three prison officials.