Are we living in a police State, asks Anbil Mahesh’s lawyer P Wilson

CHENNAI: Strongly objecting to the police arresting DMK leader Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi from his lawyers’ office, his advocates wondered whether Tamil Nadu was a police State.

Mahesh moved the Madras High Court seeking to quash the FIR registered against him in an alleged scam involving bribes running into crores of rupees for recognition and approvals for private schools.

Appearing for Anbil Mahesh when the matter came up for hearing before Justice V Lakshminarayanan, senior counsel P Wilson objected to the police action, arguing that Mahesh was discussing the future course of action in his office when the police arrested him. He questioned the urgency of the arrest and asked, "Are we living in a police state?"

Wilson also sought the framing of a standard operating procedure for the police to follow while making similar arrests.

When Wilson pointed out that the grounds of arrest mentioned the office as the place of arrest, while the remand order stated that the arrest took place on a street near the office, the court asked him to challenge the remand order.

State Public Prosecutor John Sathyan and Assistant Public Prosecutor Arun Anbumani submitted that the police had waited outside Wilson's office for nearly 1.5 hours to arrest Mahesh when he came out and entered the office only after being invited by the advocate.

The prosecutors informed the court that former MLA BT Arasukumar, the second accused and a close aide of Mahesh, had surrendered before the special court after the Supreme Court refused to grant him any relief. They also informed the court that the prosecution would file an application seeking his custody for interrogation.

After hearing the parties, the court adjourned the hearing to November 10.