The judge adjourned the hearing on the FIR quash plea to November 10, 2026.
| Photo Credit: FILE PHOTO
Senior counsel P. Wilson on Thursday (October 29, 2026) complained to the Madras High Court that Central Crime Branch (CCB) police personnel “barged” into his office in Chennai on October 26, 2026 to arrest former School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi (DMK) in a case booked on charges of allegedly collecting over ₹400 crore towards ‘party fund’ from more than 177 private school managements in the State.
Appearing before Justice V. Lakshminarayanan, seized of a plea by the former Minister to quash the First Information Report (FIR) registered against him, the senior counsel said, the petitioner was at his office on Nelson Manickam Road at about 3 p.m. on Monday to discuss about the further course of legal action to be taken pursuant to the dismissal of his anticipatory bail petition by the High Court.
“We were discussing at our office regarding further course of legal action. About three vans of 40 policemen came to our office. They blocked the entrance, barged into the office and arrested him. The place of arrest has been shown as my office. This happened in the middle of the consultation Milord, are we living in a police state?” he asked and insisted upon framing of a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).
Denying the claim, State Public Prosecutor (SPP) R. John Sathyan and Additional Public Prosecutor (APP) Arun Anbumani told the court the police were conscious of the law that an accused could not be arrested inside an advocate’s office. They asserted that the former Minister was not arrested inside the lawyer’s office. The SPP said, the police were invited into the lawyer’s office after they were waiting outside for about 90 minutes.
Mr. Anbumani said, the former Minister’s counsel-on-record Richardson Wilson had called the policemen inside the office. “It was a ploy. He called the policemen to come inside the office and has the audacity to come and complain to this court,” the APP added. However, Mr. Richardson denied he called the policemen inside and accused the APP of not instructing the SPP properly.
After hearing both sides, Justice Lakshminarayanan pointed out that district judge L.S. Sathyamurthy did not appear to have accepted the argument of the former Minister having been arrested inside the lawyer’s office while remanding him in judicial custody during the intervening night between Monday and Tuesday. Mr. Wilson replied he would challenge the finding given by the district judge.
When the arguments led to a heated exchange between the prosecution and defense counsel, the SPP said: “This is unfortunate. Let him not distort facts. This is what is happening in this case. Personal attacks are happening. We are also lawyers. This (public prosecutor) is not a permanent position. We don’t have any political affiliations. We are only doing our duty.”
Mr. Sathyan said, he had asked the policemen as to how could they enter a lawyer’s office but the instantaneous answer was that they were invited in to the office. “He (the investigating officer in the rank of an Assistant Commissioner of Police attached to CCB) said, I have material to show that I was invited into his office. If it is so required, we will place the material before the court.”
Justice Lakshminarayanan asked Mr. Richardson to produce the CCTV footage from his office along with the audio recording since the footage produced on Thursday had only visuals but no audio. The judge thereafter adjourned the hearing on the FIR quash plea to November 10, 2026 since a similar question of law had to be decided in another case related to former Minister E.V. Velu.
Published – October 30, 2026 02:56 am IST
