Chennai: Madras high court on Friday reserved its orders on a plea moved by former school education minister Anbil Mahesh seeking anticipatory bail in a case alleging that ₹100 crore was collected by promising to secure recognition and statutory approvals for private schools.Justice V Lakshminarayanan deferred the order after concluding the final hearing in the case. When the plea came up for hearing, senior advocate P Wilson, representing the petitioner, submitted that his client had appeared before the police for questioning on Sept 18 in response to a summons.The police had quizzed him for eight hours, posing 240 questions, and he had fully cooperated with the investigation, he said.Wilson further submitted that the police searched properties belonging to Anbil Mahesh in Trichy and Chennai and seized documents. The police also issued a notice seeking IT returns for the past 10 years, in response to which his client had submitted returns for seven years.Wilson added that the petitioner would neither abscond nor tamper witnesses; and he is ready to appear for police questioning whenever required and that there was no need to arrest him. He also pointed out that three accused in the case had been granted bail.Opposing the plea, state public prosecutor John Sathyan submitted that Muthukumar, a key accused in the case, was absconding and that the allegations were serious. Describing the case as one involving ‘financial terrorism’, he claimed that the amount collected could be as high as ₹400 crore.He argued that granting anticipatory bail to the petitioner would impede the investigation and that custodial interrogation was necessary to probe the alleged money transactions. He also alleged that the former minister was shielding Muthukumar, who had studied with him.
