The Madras High Court on Tuesday was shocked to come across a case of fake recruitment interviews conducted for the subordinate judiciary by a group of dubious individuals inside the Lok Adalat hall at District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) building, situated in the Chengalpet court complex, on December 27.
Justice N. Anand Venkatesh was taken aback when he came to know that the so-called interviews took place on a court campus and that it came to light only when the court staff spotted it.
The issue was brought to the notice of the judge when a bail application filed by two of the accused in the recruitment scam was listed for hearing.
Additional Public Prosecutor M. Prabavathy submitted that the petitioners were involved in a serious case of as many as 23 individuals having been interviewed by a gang for the subordinate judiciary.
The police had arrested the two individuals on the basis of a complaint lodged by the court staff.
Expressing displeasure over the way in which the investigation had been conducted so far, the judge said the police had so far not arrested the prime accused named Mani of Dindigul, who had brought people to attend the interview. They had not taken the present petitioners into police custody too to find out the whereabouts of the prime accused, he pointed out.
“The police seem to be under impression that keeping the accused persons behind bars during pre-trial stage by itself constitutes an effective investigation,” the judge said.
He granted conditional bail to both the petitioners since they had been incarcerated for 55 days and would be entitled to statutory bail in another five days.