Trial court’s judgment reflects application of mind, KKSSR tells HC

CHENNAI: Minister KKSSR Ramachandran submitted before the Madras High Court (MHC) that the trial court’s judgment discharging him from the disproportionate asset (DA) case reflects the application of mind and reasoning.

Senior counsel S Muralidhar for the minister appeared before Justice N Anand Venkatesh and submitted that under 173 (8) CrPC an investigating officer (IO) could conduct a further investigation after laying the final report, hence there was no illegality in submitting the supplementary report.

“Further, the trial court is empowered to discharge the accused after considering both the final report and supplementary report,” the counsel pointed out.

He referred to the Supreme Court’s judgment in Amit Kapoor vs Ramesh Chandra (2012) case and read that HC’s revisional jurisdiction was very limited and could not be exercised in a routine manner. “The Court has to keep in mind that the exercise of revisional jurisdiction itself should not lead to injustice ex facie,” the counsel read from the judgment.

Senior counsel NR Elango appeared for Aadhilakshmi, the wife of KKSSR, submitted that there was no accumulation of wealth from unknown sources against his client at the end of the check period. “Aadhilakshmi loaned some money and repaid it with interest at the end of the check period. It’s purely a political malafide case implicated against the minister’s family,” he said. “Further, the IO has not considered the fuel expenses and medical reimbursement despite the minister produced the proper documents accounting for his assets.”

After the submission, the judge posted the matter to March 27 for the submission of the Advocate General.