CHENNAI: Did a Jharkhand-based Maoist group fund the multi-lakh tuition fee for a girl doing her medical education in a private medical college in the city?
The National Investigation Agency (NIA), which thinks so, has since frozen the bank account through which the transaction was made.
The girl, who had been ranking among the top five in the college, has now approached Madras high court, although unsuccessfully, seeking to defreeze the account on the ground that the college refused to issue her course certificate due to non-payment of fees.
When the issue came up for hearing before a division bench of Justice S M Subramaniam and Justice M Jothiraman on Monday, it declined any relief to her saying it cannot be guaranteed that a topper in studies will not join an extremist group and cause harm to society.
Counsel for the student argued that she was one of the top five students in the college and that since the money meant for college fees was frozen by the NIA, the college is refusing to issue a course completion certificate to her.
Refusing to accept the contentions, the bench observed that the petitioner-student can respond to the NIA summons and appear before the agency, explain her stand and convince the agency to defreeze the account.
The court then dismissed the plea.