High court refuses to quash FIR filed by CBI against senior patent officer

CHENNAI: The Madras high court has refused to quash an FIR registered against a senior official at the Chennai office of Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks by the CBI for allegedly demanding a bribe to the tune of ?10 lakh to issue a patent in favour of an applicant.
“CBI has registered the case based on receipt of information from a reliable source and started investigation. Since the probe is in a nascent state, it is not permissible under law to put a spoke in the course of the investigation. It is always open to the petitioner to appear before the investigation officer as and when summoned and put forth his case,” Justice G Jayachandran said while dismissing the petition moved by Dr S P Subramaniyan, deputy controller and branch head at the office of Patents and Designs in Anna Nagar.


According to the agency, Subramaniyan had demanded Rs 10 lakh from G R Kaliaperumal to decide an application for a patent in his favour.

Kaliaperumal was accorded a patent for his invention ‘A composition, ornamental plaster mould and not a method for preparing the said mould thereon’ after paying ?3 lakh to the official. Thereafter, armed with the patent certificate, Kaliaperumal had issued notices to four firms alleging violation of his patent.

In the said dispute, Subramaniyan and his accomplice Madhusudhan had demanded ?10 lakh on June 9, 2017. Since Kaliaperumal had paid only ?3 lakh, the officials revoked the patent granted to him.