Court denies plea for interrogation through video conference

 Agreeing to the prosecution submission that since the amount involved was high, interrogation through video conference would not work out well, Justice GK Ilanthiraiyan directed the producer to apply for necessary e-pass and appear before the Ramanathapuram DSP on August 7, failing which the police can initiate other suitable action as per law. Gnanavel Raja submitted that he had sold the rights of the movie Magamuni to one Neethimani for Rs 6.25 crore.

 But Neethimani had paid only Rs 2.3 crore and was yet to pay the remaining Rs 3.95 crore. But while he was initiating action as per the film industry practice, he was summoned by the Ramanathapuram police to appear before it on July 24 in connection with a complaint moved by one Thulasimanigandan. As per the complaint, Neethimani along with Anand and Menaka forced Thulasimanigandan to invest Rs 3 crore in chit fund business. The money was yet to be repaid, the complainant said.

 Claiming that he had dealt with Neethimani as a distributor for his movie and that he did not know anything about the complaint nor about Ananad and Menaka, Gnanavel Raja sought to hold the interrogation through video conferencing taking into account the prevailing COVID-19 lockdown.