The Madras High Court has refused to permit a victim of job racketing to take interim custody of his money recovered by the police. Shocked to find that the petitioner had paid ₹78 lakh for the purpose of obtaining a Class I (Group A) job in 2017, the court held that he must wait until the completion of trial.
Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy wrote: “The petitioner (K. Sadagopan) appears to be a very greedy person as he has paid ₹78 lakh for the purpose of getting a Class I job... It is to be understood by all concerned that public appointment is only by selection process and no job can be obtained by giving bribe.”
The judge pointed out the Central Crime Branch, attached to the Greater Chennai Police, had registered a case on the basis of a complaint lodged by the petitioner and recovered some amount of money from the accused besides freezing the latter’s bank accounts. The seized money was deposited in fixed deposits.
When the petitioner urged the Poonnamallee Judicial Magistrate to grant interim custody of the seized amount, the magistrate rejected the plea on the ground that the investigation was at the nascent stage and that any decision on returning the money could be taken only during the course of trial.
Hence, the petitioner had moved the High Court by way of a revision petition. Not finding any justification to entertain the revision, Justice Chakravarthy lamented that the petitioner had parted away with such huge amount of money without any guilt of depriving a meritorious candidate of his/her opportunity.
Though a request was made to at least direct the court concerned to expedite the trial proceedings, the judge refused to issue even such a direction and dismissed the revision.
