Idol case: Law Minister wants action against magazine editor

The issue pertains to a plea moved by Kadar Batcha, former DSP of idol wing and an accused in idol theft case seeking direction to act against special officer Ponn Manickavel for his alleged collusion with the prime accused in various idol theft cases.

Justice Anand Venkatesh, before whom the plea moved by Batcha came, had allowed to implead Pon Manickavel in the case. Following this, Pon Manickavel had submitted that two Tamil Nadu ministers were involved in idol theft cases that are pending investigation. However, the judge, while directing Pon Manickavel to file a report on the allegations he had raised against the minister, had on July 25 prohibited the media from reporting the proceedings of the case.

Based on this, Shanmugam contended in his plea that despite the gag order, the magazine, Nakkeeran, in its edition dated July 29, published a news report alleging involvement of two State ministers in the idol theft cases. The news article even revealed the name of the ministers, he alleged.

Also, claiming that the article was published in total violation of the High Court order, the Minister wanted the court to imitate contempt of court action against the Nakkeeran’s editor and the reporter who wrote the article. The plea is likely to be taken up for hearing on Wednesday.

Batcha in his plea had contended that while being part of Idol wing, he played a major role in probing the foreign trade scam by issuing red alert against notorious idol smuggler Subash Kapoor. But Pon Manickavel directly colluded with Deenadayalan, a prime accused in various idol theft cases, and foisted a false case against him in a bid wreak ‘bureaucratic vengeance’, he alleged.