Corruption By Prison Officials: Madras High Court Asks Govt To Take Strict Action, Rejects Anticipatory Bail Plea Of Former Prison Superintendent

The bench of Justice SM Subramaniam and Justice M Jothiraman was hearing a petition filed by Gokila, wife of Murugaiyan, who was confined in the Puzhal Central Prison seeing 60 days remission and 4 months of wages to her husband.

During the previous hearing, the bench was informed that as per the report of the Auditor and Accountant General of India, funds to the tune of Rs. 14.25 crores had been misappropriated and an inquiry had been initiated for the same. The court had however expressed its displeasure on the fact that though the preliminary inquiry had commenced in 2022, not much progress had been made even after 2 years. The court had remarked that the DVAC was expected to be more sensitive and use its powers to initiate all appropriate action including search, seizure, and in the event of identifying the offense, register an FIR and arrest the officials. 

The court had also remarked that the Government was accountable to the public for the conduct of the Uniformed Service Personnel and should be monitoring them. The court said that when the salaries and other allowances of the officers were being received even without a day's delay, they were bound to pay the wages to the prisoners which was their constitutional right. The court had also called for a report from the government in this regard.

When the case was taken up on Wednesday, Additional Advocate General J Ravindran submitted a status report on the preliminary investigation. The AAG also informed the court that FIR had been registered and disciplinary action had also been initiated against the officials, who were part of the misappropriation.

The court also recorded the report filed by the Inspector of DVAC who informed the court that around Rs 1.64 crore worth of stationary had not been supplied to the government departments and around Rs 4 crore worth of bandage cloth was also not supplied by the prison officials, who swindled the money. Calling it an alarming situation, the bench directed the State to take stringent action including suspension from service.

Anticipatory Bail Of Officers Rejected

Meanwhile, former Madurai Central Prison Superintendent Urmila and five others had approached the Madurai bench of Madras High Court seeking anticipatory bail apprehending arrest by DVAC in connection with the case.

Dismissing their pleas, Justice Anand Venkatesh noted that the investigating officer must be given a free hand to decide if the petitioners were to be summoned in the process and whether any custodial interrogation was necessary.

The judge took note of the ongoing proceedings before the division bench and remarked that the case was only the tip of the iceberg and the actual loss to the state exchequer had to be ascertained. The court added that the investigation was at a crucial stage and the investigating officer must be given time to verify all the records and ascertain the data from the previous periods also. Thus, noting that granting anticipatory bail at the preliminary stage would affect the course of investigation, the court dismissed the pleas.

Case Title: M Gokila v The Additional Chief Secretary to Government and Others (Payment of wages plea) AND Urmila v State of Tamil Nadu (Anticipatory bail plea)

Case No: WP 38413 of 2024 AND Crl OP (MD) 23061 of 2024