The Madras High Court on Thursday refused to quash a charge-sheet filed by the organised crime unit of the Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID) against suspended IPS officer G. Sampath Kumar on charges of having extorted huge amount of money from bookies involved in the 2013 Indian Premier League (IPL) betting and match-fixing scam.
Justice G. Jayachandran dismissed the IPS officer’s quash petition on the ground that the petitioner had not made out any convincing ground to set at naught the final report filed by the police. He, however, directed a Special Court here hearing cases booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act to go ahead with the trial and complete it within six months. According to the prosecution, Mr. Sampath Kumar’s associate Mahendra Singh Ranka had extorted around ₹1.35 crore from many bookies when the IPS officer was heading the CB-CID and probing the IPL scam. Money to the tune of ₹ 5 lakh was collected from each bookie on the promise of saving them from getting booked under the Goondas Act.
Though the First Information Report (FIR) was initially registered only against Ranka and others on the basis of a complaint lodged by one Gautam Chand Nimani, Mr. Sampath Kumar was added as the fourth accused in the case only after the investigation led to disclosure of around ₹ 65 lakh having been paid to the IPS officer.
FIR in Tamil
In his present quash petition, Mr. Sampath Kumar had claimed that the entire prosecution case against becomes doubtful and unworthy of being proceeded with in view of the fact that the FIR having been written in Tamil though it was the categorical case of the complainant that he had lodged his complaint only in English.
However, Mr. Justice Jayachandran rejected the argument on the ground that the issue could be raised only during the course of trial. The judge also refused to accept the petitioner’s contention that the procedures required to be followed before prosecuting a public servant had not been adhered to in the case booked against him.