High Court asks Greater Chennai police to file a report on case against OPS

The Madras High Court on Thursday asked the Greater Chennai police to file a report on the plea filed by AIADMK MP C Ve Shanmugam seeking a CBI investigation into ransacking of party headquarters and alleged theft of documents by supporters of expelled leader O Panneerselvam. Fearing that decisions would be taken against him, Panneerselvam had filed a case before the Madras High Court against the conduct of the general council meeting on July 11. 

The Court dismissed his petition at 9 am on the same day and permitted the meeting to begin at 9:15 am. After the judgement, he went to the party office in Royapettah with his supporters. Stating that his supporters broke open the doors and trespassed into the office, the petitioner, in his affidavit, alleged that they stole several documents including bank pass books and registration certificates of 37 vehicles owned by the party. 

He said that petty cash of Rs 31,000 went missing and that the rioters damaged two of the party vehicles parked inside the office premises. The party office was sealed by a Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO) and that access to enter into the building was given to party’s interim general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami only after the court quashed the order. Shanmugam had earlier filed a complaint with the police with the details of all the looted articles and CCTV footage of the ransacking of the party office.

 As the police had not filed a First Information Report (FIR) till date and had been keeping the complaint pending after issuance of Community Service Register (CSR) number, he sought the court to direct CBI probe into the issue. Hearing the plea on Thursday, Justice N Sathish Kumar granted time till August 25 for Additional Public Prosecutor E Raj Thilak to obtain instructions from the police.