States » SouthPosted at: Oct 26 2026 4:48PM


Hours after HC nixes advance bail plea, ex-DMK Minister Anbil Mahesh arrested in Rs 100 cr school fraud case

Chennai, Oct 26 (UNI) A couple of hours after the Madras High Court dismissed his anticipatory bail plea, the Chennai Crime Branch (CCB) police on Monday evening arrested senior DMK Leader and former Tamil Nadu School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi in connection with the Rs 100 crore private school fraud case.
A special police team arrested Anbil Mahesh, cited as fifth accused in the case, from his Amjinkarai residence. He was being taken to the office of the Greater Chennai City Police Commissionerate for preliminary questioning. Later he was expected to be subjected to medical tests after which he would be produced before a Court for judicial remand.
Earlier in the day, Mr Justice V.Lakshminaryanan, who had reserved his orders on October 16, dismissed his anticipatory bail petition after the prosecution objected to it on the ground that what had happened was large scale corruption and that they needed to be extensively probed.
The CCB registered an FIR alleging that over Rs.100 crore was illegally collected from private school managements as a "party fund" in exchange for statutory clearances and recognition during the previous DMK regime.
Senior counsel representing Anbil Mahesh had argued that he has been completely cooperating with the probe, including complying with a CCB directive to submit 10 years of Income Tax returns for himself, his wife, and his mother-in-law. His team maintained that custodial interrogation is unnecessary.
The prosecution opposed the advance bail plea, citing that the allegations are serious and involving substantial collections, making custodial questioning essential to unearth the full details of the case.
In line with Justice Lakshminarayanan's directive asking him to file the AB plea in a bid to prevent any coercive action against the ex-Minister in the case during hearing on the main plea seeking to quash the FIR in the case, he had filed the plea and it was eventually dismissed today, leading to his arrest.
During the earlier hearing on October 12 in the main plea, the Judge, in a direct poser to the DMK,sought to know when did the party started talking of the Governor's powers after comparing the gubernatorial post to that of a "goat's beard" and that both were unnecessary.
Questioning the DMK's stance on the Governor's powers, the Judge asked "When did the DMK start talking about the Governor's powers?" and comparing the Governor's position to a "goat's beard" from the party's traditional viewpoint.
The Judge put the poser after the former School Education Minister's counsel argued that only the Governor can grant sanction to register a FIR and conduct a probe against him under Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act rather than just the State government's Public Department Secretary.
The judge questioned the sudden reliance on the Governor's authority by the DMK, noting the party's historically critical stance regarding the office and powers of the Governor. As far as the DMK is concerned, it's stand was there was no need for a post of Governor. The police in its counter-affidavit justified registering the corruption case and contended that the Governor's sanction was not necessary
It may be noted that two weeks after raids by police and questioning and a day after the court had refused interim relief on October 1, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) stepped in to probe the money laundering angle in the case.
The ED took up the probe based on the FIR registered by the CCB police on September 16 to examine the alleged illegal financial transactions and the money trail in the case and the possible money laundering angle. The ED probe is expected to focus on the alleged financial transactions and whether the proceeds of the alleged offence would attract provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
The ED has obtained the case documents from the CCB police and is examining the financial transactions connected with the alleged collection of money from private schools promising permanent recognitions and other statutory government approvals. The agency conduct searches at premises linked to Anbil Mahesh and B.T.Arasakumar, cited as the key accused and was the first person to be arrested in the case, as part of its investigation.
Based on a complaint from Federation of Associations of Private School in Tamil Nadu Secretary T.C.Elangovan that key accused B.T.Arasakumar (59) had collected large sums of money from private school managements promising to secure government approvals and clearances, including Permanent Recognition, School Upgradation and building-related approvals, police booked him under several sections.
Arasakumar, who claimed himself as President of an unregistered Association, was arrested on June 27 and was remanded in judicial custody. He was subsequently detained under the Goondas Act which was subsequently quashed by the High Court. Widening the probe, police arrested two more people in the case.
After holding state-wide inquiries, questioned about 250 people, including officials attached to the School Education and other Deparments and seizing incriminating documents, it came to light that several crores of money have been collected from 177 private schools in the first phase. As the complaints continued to pour in alleging financial irregularties and cheating, officials freezed the bank accounts of Arasakumar, his family members and those linked to him.
Several documents and digital evidences, including mobile phones, hard disks were recovered. Even as further probe was on in the case, a persual of the seized materials and evidences revealed the involvement of the former School Education Minister in alleged corrupt activities.
After registering cases under various sections including under the provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act, the CCB officials had on September 16 conducted raids at nine locations linked to the former DMK Minister and three of his assistants Valadi Karthik, Arun Prakash and Prakash, for the alleged irregularties and seized 188 incriminating documents.
The raids were conducted at nine locations linked to the four people, including two premises each linked to the DMK leader in his native Tiruchy and Chennai, and seized 118 documents, including property documents, bank account details, cheques, 18 mobile phones, three laptops, eight pendrives, a desktop with inbuilt hard disk, one Tablet and one Apple I-pad.
After the searches, the police also summoned the former Minister for questioning who appeared before the investigating authorities on September 18.
Police claimed that more than Rs 100 crore was collected from several school managements through the network under investigation. It was said that Arasakumar was alleged to have operated through an unregistered body called the Tamil Nadu Private Schools Association. It was launched by Arasakumar in December 2024 with several private school associations as its members. Anbil Mahesh, who was then the School Education Minister, and senior officials of the School Education Department had attended the launch, police quoting investigations said.
The case was initially based on complaints alleging that large sums of money were collected from private schools by promising to facilitate permanent recognition, approvals and other statutory clearances. The investigation has since been expanded to examine the role of several individuals and the flow of funds.
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Tags: #Hours after HC nixes advance bail plea# ex-DMK Minister Anbil Mahesh arrested in Rs 100 cr school fraud case
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