Madras HC grants anticipatory bail to former minister V Senthil Balaji’s brother

Madurai: Madras high court has granted anticipatory bail to former minister V Senthil Balaji’s brother R V Ashok Kumar in cases registered over alleged obstruction of income tax officials during searches in Karur district in 2023.The court was hearing five anticipatory bail petitions filed by Ashok Kumar, who is apprehending arrest in cases registered by the Karur district police in 2023.The case of the prosecution is that income tax officials came to the premises of the petitioner and his associates on May 26, 2023, to conduct search operations under Section 132 of the Income Tax Act pursuant to duly executed search warrants. The public servants were obstructed from performing their official duties, manhandled, physically assaulted, threatened, verbally abused, search warrants snatched from them and destroyed, and laptops and pen drives containing crucial confidential data were snatched.The vehicles of the officials were also damaged by around 50 to 100 respectively, who gathered at the premises of the petitioner and his associates, all at the instance of the petitioner, with an intention to threaten and instil fear so as to prevent the officials from performing their official duties and to thwart the search operations.Justice P Dhanabal observed that considering the nature of offences and the fact that the alleged occurrence took place in 2023 and the investigation might have been completed and co-accused were already released on bail, further custodial interrogation of the petitioner is not required.Taking note of the fact that one of the cases was closed as a mistake of fact, the judge granted anticipatory bail to the petitioner on certain conditions.