Pollachi colleges declare holiday as students protest

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Pollachi/Tirupur:15.03.2019

Several private colleges in Pollachi declared a holiday on Thursday to quell student unrest as the protests demanding action against in the sexual harassment case accused threatened to snowball into a major agitation.

Pollachi town came under a thick security blanket as policemen were deployed at all vantage points to prevent students and public from protesting. Police said more than 350 of their personnel were deployed in major junctions. Police teams led by two ADSPs and six DSPs maintained strict vigil in public places as well as in the vicinity of colleges. The action by police and college authorities comes a day after more than 1,000 students from various colleges staged protests. Though the police managed to ensure that none of the students protested in Pollachi, college students from Coimbatore and Tirupur staged protests.

An police officer said law and order was maintained in Pollachi and there were minor protests in some places by some outfits.

College authorities are yet to take a call on whether the institutions would function on Friday. The managements are likely to decide if classes would be conducted on Friday based on inputs from the police in the morning.

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Former AIADMK councillor held for abetting suicide

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:15.02.2019

A former councillor of the AIADMK was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly abetting the suicide of a woman in Kancheepuram.

The woman had fallen in love with Sriharan who had promised to marry her. Later, he refused to marry her and informed his relatives and the former councillor, identified as Kannan, to settle the issue. Kannan had gone to her house on March 11, abused her and asked her to stay away from Sriharan, following which the woman ended her life on Tuesday.

Her family members alleged that the woman committed suicide because of Kannan’s abuse. He allegedly named her caste and said she was not fit to marry Sriharan. Kannan and Sriharan belonged to the same caste.

Police said Sriharan, a resident of Varadharaja Perumal Koil Mada Street in Kancheepuram, is employed at a private agency in Kancheepuram. The duo had been dating for the past two years. They broke up after Sriharan refused to marry her.

The girl’s father, Adi Kesavan, of Singaperumal Koil Street in Kancheepuram, filed a complaint with the Vishnu Kanchi police. Kannan was produced before a magistrate court in Kancheepuram and was sent to prison.

The woman had fallen in love with Sriharan who had promised to marry her. Later, he refused to marry her and asked former councillor Kannan to settle the issue

Ex-DMK min’s son gets 7-yr RI for money laundering

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:15.03.2019

The XII additional sessions court for CBI cases in the city on Wednesday sentenced late DMK leader and state minister Ko Si Mani’s son Mani Anbazhagan to seven years rigorous imprisonment in a money laundering case. The court imposed a fine of ₹1 crore on him. He will have to undergo an additional year of rigorous imprisonment if he fails to pay the fine.

The case was investigated by Enforcement Directorate’s zone-II in Chennai, headed by joint director P Manikkavel IRS. The investigation to conviction took around 18 months. This is the first conviction in southern India, sources said.

Mani Anbazhagan was involved in international hawala transactions amounting to $11,267,521 (₹75.50 crore) through seven different current accounts at Indian Bank’s Thousand Lights branch under the names of different business entities.

The investigation was initiated based on an intelligence input received from the Chennai seaport Customs in October 2016, ED said in a statement on Thursday. It was a herculean task for the ED to establish a link between the fake entities and the actual operator, Mani Anbazhagan, to make a case of international hawala transactions.

The ED put several hawala operators under surveillance, which lead to searching their residential premises, after identifying those involved in the scam. A case was registered in April 2017. The charges were filed in the special court (PMLA) in October 2017.

The account holder, who acted as a lender under an assumed name, was arrested on April 3, 2017 and Mani Anbazhagan, who actually operated the account, was arrested on August 7, 2017. Both of them filed various petitions before higher judicial forums, either to get bail or to quash the charges. All superior courts, considering the gravity of the case, not only refused bail but also gave a direction to complete the trial in a time-bound manner.

The modus operandi adopted by the hawala operator was that after opening the bank account, without revealing the real identity and involvement, submit the forged import documents and project it before the bank as if it were payments for genuine imports already made. All these foreign exchanges were sent to Hong Kong to undisclosed beneficiaries and for undisclosed enduse. The hawala operator transferred the foreign exchange outside the country (Hong Kong), without making any corresponding imports into India.

The Central Crime Branch (CCB), Chennai, also registered a case in the related matter and are investigating it for forgery and cheating under sections 420 and 471 of the Indian Penal Code. The CCB investigation is under progress.


Late DMK leader and state minister Ko Si Mani’s son Mani Anbazhagan was involved in international hawala transactions amounting to ₹75.50 crore through seven different current accounts at Indian Bank’s Thousand Lights branch

No limits on compensation for accident death, rules HC

Families Can Turn To Many Sources To Get Relief

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:15.03.2019

The Madras high court has made it clear that utilizing multiple options to get compensation for the death of a person in a motor accident, by their family, particularly when the deceased was the sole breadwinner, cannot be construed as ‘double compensation’ and prohibited.

“Awarding of compensation to the claimants is only for the sake of giving solace to them who lost their breadwinner to the accident. If their tears are not wiped off by the courts of law, there will be little meaning in awarding compensation,” Justice M V Muralidaran said.

The issue pertains to an appeal moved by National Insurance Company challenging the order of the Commissioner of Employees Compensation at Coonoor, awarding compensation to the kin of transport corporation employees who were killed in road accidents.

The primary contention of the insurer was that since the families of the deceased have already obtained compensation from the insurer of the vehicles involved in the accident through motor accident claims tribunal, they cannot claim additional compensation under the Workmen Compensation Act for the same accident.

The claimants submitted that before the motor accidents claims tribunal they claimed compensation against the driver, owner and insurer of the vehicle. And the claim made before the commissioner for employees’ compensation was against the employer and insurer of the vehicle where the deceased worked while they died during the course of employment.

Justice Muralidaran said, “In my considered view, the action of the claimants would not amount to double compensation or double jeopardy to the employer in the light of the observations made in the catena of the decisions discussed.”

Applying the principles of the doctrine of election, the court is in entire agreement that the compensation claimed at accident tribunal against the vehicle which caused the accident and claim under the Workmen Compensation Act against the employer during the employment, would not amount to double compensation, the court said.

Racket promising govt jobs: Ex-IAS officer held

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:15.03.2019

Police arrested a retired IAS official on Thursday for cheating people by promising them government jobs in the state.

V Mohanraj, 62, had collected ₹5.5 crore from 106 people. Based on the complaint of Nissar Ahmed, 49, a resident of Nungambakkam, central crime branch sleuths registered a case against him.

Last year, the entrustment document fraud (EDF) wing of the CCB had arrested K Navappan, 28, a resident of Tiruvannamalai, who cheated people in similar fashion. During questioning, Navappan, who posed as an IAS official working at the Secretariat before his victims, told sleuths about the involvement of Mohanraj in the racket. Navappan told police that he had collected money ranging from ₹1lakh to ₹10 lakh according to the jobs his victims wanted.

Before apprehending Mohanraj, the EDF wing personnel collected details and evidence to substantiate the link between Mohanraj and Navappan. Officials said Navappan often visited Mohanraj’s office in the city between 2015 and 2016 when the latter was in service.

“We collected the entry and exit registers from Mohanraj’s office and statements of the people who saw Navappan visiting. Few more proofs to establish the connection between the duo are with us,” said an investigation officer.

Preliminary inquiries revealed that Ahmed had approached Mohanraj through a common friend, Selvakumar, in 2015. He had paid him ₹50 lakh to get medical seat for his daughter. When things did not work out, Ahmed demanded the money back. The cheques Mohanraj gave bounced and Ahmed complained to police who took no action terming it as a civil dispute.

But Ahmed filed a case in the high court which directed police to take action. Police visited Mohanraj’s residence in Anna Nagar extension and brought him to the commissioner’s office. During inquiries, he confessed to have colluded with Navappan and cheated people promising to get them jobs.

TN GO names victim, college in Pollachi case, sparks controversy

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:15.03.2019

An order issued by the state government, transferring the Pollachi sexual harassment case to the CBI, is mired in controversy as it had named the victim and her college. The order cited a communication issued by the DGP quoting Coimbatore superintendent of police as saying on February 24 that a complaint was given by a girl student of a college in Pollachi alleging that she was sexually harassed and robbed of her gold chain by a group of men inside a car.

The victim was named again when the DGP, in his communication, said the girl’s brother complained to the Pollachi east police station on February 26 that he had been assaulted and threatened with murder by the accused.

A day after the state government transferred the case in which more than 400 women were suspected to have been affected to the CBI, the CB-CID police requested people who have proof of video, photos or audio to submit them before the deputy commissioner of police, CB-CID office, on Avinashi Road in Coimbatore.

Meanwhile, sporadic protests by students broke out across TN seeking action against the accused.

Case against Stalin son-in-law, journalist

The political slugfest in the Pollachi sexual assault case ratcheted up on Thursday with the Chennai city police registering a case against DMK chief M K Stalin’s son-in-law V Sabarisan and ‘Nakheeran’ editor Gopal and summoning them for questioning in a case filed by deputy speaker Pollachi V Jayaraman and minister S P Velumani over spreading false news linking their names to the grisly crime. DMK hit back with Sabarish’s counsel R Neelankandan issuing a legal notice to Jayaraman for including his client’s name in the complaint. The CB-CID, meanwhile, has requested the general public to share any proof they may have in the case. P11

Govt shielding culprits: Oppn

The government had come under pressure after protests erupted across the state demanding action against the sexual predators until the 19-year-old girl student summoned up the courage to complain against them. The opposition accused the AIADMK government of shielding the culprits.

So far four persons have been detained under the goondas act in the case. Officers privy to the investigation said the four arrested are suspected to be part of a larger gang that preyed on students, working women and housewives in Pollachi since 2012, befriending them on social media and shooting videos of them and blackmailing them for sex and money.