CHENNAI: Madras high court has refused to order issuance of a course completion certificate to a medical student whose fee paid was frozen by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) as it was found to be proceeds of crime of a Maoist organisation. According to NIA, Rs 1.13 crore fee payable by Puja Kumari, a resident of Bihar, for perusing her MBBS course at Chettinad Academy of Research and Education in Chennai were directly derived from illegal, extorted funds raised on behalf of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), a proscribed terrorist organization. Since a single judge of the court refused to entertain her plea, she has moved the present appeal challenging the order. Refusing any relief to the student, the first bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arul Murugan said, “…the case at hand presents an extraordinary and intricate factual matrix involving national security, terrorist funding and criminal asset seizure under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.” The chargesheet submitted by NIA specifically arrays the appellant’s immediate family members, namely her brother Tarun Kumar (A-1) and her paternal uncle Pradyuman Sharma (A-2), as key operational masterminds raising extorted funds for a banned terrorist outfit. The investigation established that the funds transferred into the bank account of the college towards her education were directly traceable back to these illegal terrorist funding, the court said. “While it may be true that the appellant is not directly arrayed as an accused in her individual capacity, she cannot assert an equitable right to benefit from the fruits of a crime. The moment NIA seized and appropriated the fee amount from the college, the appellant’s account with the institution legally defaulted to an unpaid status,” the bench added. The judges asserted that the college has already utilized its resources, infrastructure, and faculty to train the appellant. Forcing the institution to release the certificates when it has effectively received zero clean currency for her education would be a gross miscarriage of equity and justice. “If she maintains her absolute innocence and claims the funds were legitimate, her remedy lies in approaching the competent special court for the release of the seized funds from NIA. She cannot compel a private educational institution to take on the burden of litigation against NIA to retrieve the fees paid by her, which was appropriated,” the court said and dismissed her appeal.
