Former AIADMK Minister M.R. Vijayabhaskar granted bail in land grab cases
The Hindu
Former AIADMK Minister M.R. Vijayabhaskar granted conditional bail in land grab cases; accused of coercing property transfers.
The Judicial Magistrate I here on Tuesday, July, 30, granted conditional bail to former AIADMK Minister M.R. Vijayabhaskar in two separate land grab cases.
Mr.Vijayabhaskar was among 13 persons booked by the Vangal police for allegedly grabbing valuable parcels of land at Kunnampatti and Thoranakkalpatti in Karur district. According to a complaint by Prakash of Kuppuchipalayam, Mr. Vijayabhaskar, along with a group of persons, threatened his daughter Shobana and made her register two properties in the names of D. Ragu of Kancheepuram, M. Sidhardhan of Erode, besides N. Marappan and S. Selvaraj of Karur. She was coerced into signing documents to give away these properties, worth about ₹100 crore.
In another case, the Karur town police had registered a case against seven persons, on a complaint lodged by Mohamed Abdul Kadhar, the Sub Registrar (in-charge) of Mela Karur, In his complaint, Mr. Kadhar had said that they had cheated him by producing a non-traceable certificate, obtained by concealing facts when the original documents were available with the title owner, while registering documents. Prithiviraj, Inspector of Villivakkan in Chennai, now on vacancy reserve, was among the among the accused as he was said to have issued a non-traceable certificate without conducting a proper investigation. The case was later transferred to the Crime Branch Criminal Investigation Department (CBCID) and arrested Mr. Vijayabhaskar along with his close associate Praveen on July 16 in Kerala.
The former Minister had sought bail in both the cases.
While the advocates represented by the prosecution vehemently opposed the bail pleas, the advocate of Mr. Vijayabhaskar argued that the case was foisted on him due to political vendetta.
After hearing arguments from both sides, the Judicial Magistrate, in a late night order on Tuesday, granted bail to Mr. Vijayabhaskar in both the cases on the condition that he appear daily before the CBCID office in Karur until further orders.
Similarly, Praveen and Prithiviraj were also granted bail.