SC grants bail to former Puducherry minister

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday granted anticipatory bail to P M L Kalyanasundaram, who lost his cabinet berth in the Puducherry ministry after Tamil Nadu police lodged an FIR on October 8 alleging that he had employed a proxy to write his Class X supplementary examination.
It turned out to be a simple case, though a bench of Justice Altamas Kabir and Justice S S Nijjar had on Friday sought attorney general G E Vahanvati’s assistance given the strange facts of the case — an education minister using a proxy to write Class X supplementary examination and losing his job.
Vahanvati said since the TN education department had already conducted an inquiry and documented the evidence, the state police must show to the court the purpose for which they needed custodial interrogation of the former minister.
Kalyanasundaram’s counsel U U Lalit indicated possible political vendetta by pointing out that there was hardly any difference in the signatures affixed by the candidate on the main answersheet and additional sheets.
But Tamil Nadu additional advocate general Guru Krishna Kumar said the court must be strict while considering the anticipatory bail plea of Kalyanasundaram. "If it was a common man facing this FIR, the apex court would have asked him to approach the trial court for regular bail. To maintain probity in public life, the court must take a strict view as this is a case involving an education minister in a cheating case relating to examination," he said.
However, the court said it was trying to balance the two — the alleged involvement of the minister in a case like this and the evidence presented against him. After weighing the two, the bench granted him anticipatory bail with a warning that he must cooperate with the investigating officer, not tamper with evidence nor attempt influencing witnesses and report to the crime branch every Monday.
The court said the anticipatory bail order would remain in force till the filing of chargesheet by the police and thereafter the accused would have to move the trial court for appropriate relief.
An MLA from Kalapet constituency, the 34-year-old Kalayanasundaram had said he appeared in the Class X science paper on September 29 but did not take his social science paper the next day as he had to attend assembly session.
On October 8, the TN police lodged an FIR accusing him of adopting unfair means in an examination on the ground that another appeared for him on September 29. The investigating officer, failing to arrest Kalyanasundaram, moved the Tindivanam magistrate on October 14. Meanwhile, the former minister moved the Madras High Court, which granted interim stay on his arrest.
The petitioner undertook before the Tindivanam magistrate on November 2 that he was ready and willing to execute the specimen signatures and sample handwriting, as required by the investigating officer. But six days later, the HC dismissed his petition saying, "If the petitioner is granted anticipatory bail, there may be possibility of tampering the witnesses and hampering investigation, which is at a nascent stage."
In his appeal in SC against the HC order, Kalyanasundaram said he was neither caught impersonating nor was the impersonator named or identified by the investigating agency. "The whole aspect has taken place behind the back of the petitioner and is clearly having a sinister angle to the alleged incident," he said.
Kalyanasundaram was sacked from the cabinet by chief minister N Rangasamy on November 12.