Bailable warrant against Disc Assets directors

A division bench comprising Justice M Sathyanarayanan and Justice N Seshasayee while issuing the bailable warrant also directed the Commissioner of Police, Madurai, to ensure the presence of both Janarthanan and Arun before them on October 31.

The warrant issued is in sequel to the earlier passed on September 5, 2018 wherein the then first bench had directed the submission of all the property documents including originals to the court-appointed committee headed by Justice N Paul Vasanthakumar, a retired chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir High Court.

The Committee chairman, on citing certain irregularities and the earlier directions not being complied with, said Janarthanan appeared before the committee on April 9, 2018 and stated that the amounts payable to each of the claimants are fed in the computer and the same was handed over to the investigating officer. Also, he took a stand that he is submitting readily available batches of original documents of 176 properties and that he will submit the subsequent batch on getting them ready.

But the said application which was filed before the Special court for TNPID Act cases, Madurai was returned with an endorsement that “No documents filed along with this petition.”

Further, one of the erstwhile directors Arunkumar, who has not complied with the direction to deposit Rs 10 lakhs, in-turn influenced the then investigating officer to de-freeze a sum of Rs 10 lakhs from his savings bank account. Also, a letter seeking status of the investigation in the case revealed that the investigation officer has examined only 28 witnesses, which would show lack of seriousness in finding out the culpability of the accused persons namely the erstwhile managing director, directors and former directors.

Moreover, it has been found that the flats in Poes Garden; Masilamani Street, T Nagar; Rajbathar Street, T Nagar is a vacant fenced plot, Justice Vasanthakumar said

.

The Committee also sought to direct the respondents to handover the original title deeds pertaining to 1,071 properties identified by the investigation officer and defreeze Rs 20.29 lakh lying in the name of Disc Assets and its sister concerns and directors and former directors in 22 accounts.