States » SouthPosted at: Oct 29 2026 1:51PM


Key accused in ex-DMK Minister Anbil Mahesh multi-crore school graft case surrenders in Court

Chennai, Oct 29 (UNI) A day after the Supreme Court dismissed his advance bail plea, oppostion DMK former MLA Muthukumar, a key accused in the multi-crore private school fraud case involving former School Education Minister and DMK senior leder Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi, surrendered before a Special Court on Thursday
After the CCB police, probing the case, launched a manhunt to arrest him after the Apex Court rejected his anticipatory bail plea, Muthukumar produced himself before the Special Court trying cases against elected MPs and MLAs.
Special Court Judge L.S.Sathyamoorthy after recording his surrender, remanded him in judicial custody till November 12. He was later escorted to Puzhal prison.
The case involved allegations that money was collected from private school managements by promising permanent recognition, school upgrades and statutory approvals. Investigators have alleged that the collections could amount to around Rs.400 crore, though the exact extent of the alleged transactions are still under investigation.
Muthukumar, who was said to be holding the post of Secretary of the unrecognised Association floated by prime accused B.T.Arasakumar, is cited as the third accused in the case. He was linked to the alleged collection of money under the guise of “party funds”.
Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi was arrested on October 26 hours after the Madras High Court rejected his anticipatory bail plea accepting the police argument that his interrogation was paramount to trace the money trail and its beneficiaries and establish the roles
of those linked to the scam. The prosecution also said the allegations are serious and involving substantial collections, making custodial questioning essential to unearth the full details of the case.He was then remanded in judicial custody till November six.
The Supreme Court yesterday dismissed the anticipatory bail pleas of Muthukumar and another accused, S Dinesh, declining to interfere with the Madras High Court’s orders. The investigation is being conducted by the Greater Chennai Police Central Crime Branch, while the Enforcement Directorate is also probing the alleged money laundering angle.
A total of five people were cited as accused in the case. They included Arasakumar, Vaalaadi Karthik, who is said to be the brother of the ex-Minister and was yet to be traced, Muthukumar, also a long time friend of Anbil Mahesh, his driver Suresh and the former Minister.
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. Police quoting further investigsations reveal that the money trail could touch over Rs 400 crores.
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.
Arasakumar was also detained under Goondas Act but it was later quashed by the court.
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Chennai, Oct 29 (UNI) A day after the Supreme Court dismissed his advance bail plea, oppostion DMK former MLA Muthukumar, a key accused in the multi-crore private school fraud case involving former School Education Minister and DMK senior leder Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi, surrendered before a Special Court on Thursday
After the CCB police, probing the case, launched a manhunt to arrest him after the Apex Court rejected his anticipatory bail plea, Muthukumar produced himself before the Special Court trying cases against elected MPs and MLAs.

see more..