The special court for the trial of cases investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Coimbatore on Friday issued summons to eight persons, including four IPS officers, who have been named witnesses by the prosecution in an extortion case linked to the multi-crore Paazee forex scam of 2009.
CBI Public prosecutor Surendra Mohan on Friday submitted the first schedule of witnesses before CBI Court Judge S. Govindharajan as directed by the latter on November 28, when charges were framed against five accused in the case.
The list of witnesses begins with K. Natarajan, Secretary to the Government of India, who gave sanction for prosecution against Inspector General of Police (IGP) Pramod Kumar, the first accused in the case, in 2013.
Retired IGP T.P. Sundaramurthy; former Tirupur Central Crime Branch (CCB) inspector E. Shanmugaiah, who turned approver in the case; Paazee Forex Trading India Private Limited employees M. Karunakaran and U. Manikandan; Additional Director Generals of Police B. Bala Naga Devi and A. Arun; and IGP N. Kannan are the other witnesses.
Mr. Sundaramurthy was the one who had given sanction for the prosecution against then CCB inspector Mohanraj, another accused in the case.
Mr. Karunakaran worked as the driver of A. Kamalavalli, one of the directors of Tiruppur-based Paazee Forex Trading India Private Limited. He lodged the complaint with the police after Kamalavalli was found missing. It was alleged that the accused extorted a few crores as ransom from Kamalavalli, besides promising to help the firm in the scam.
Ms. Devi worked as Deputy Inspector General of Police, and Mr. Arun and Mr. Kannan as Superintendents of Police under Mr. Kumar during the period of the scam and extortion from 2009 to 2010.
The prosecution will examine the IPS officers to ascertain whether Mr. Kumar put pressure on the then subordinate officers to include preferred personnel for the investigation of the scam.
The court has scheduled examination of the eight witnesses from December 21.
