Case Against Electricity Minister Quashed After Settlement With Victims

Background of the case

• The name of the case is Shanmugam v. The Inspector of Police & Anr.
• In the year 2014, Rajkumar (fourth accused) had approached Arulmani (complainant) and claimed that owing to his close connections with Senthil Balaji (then Transport Minister) and his brother Ashok, he was capable of influencing the recruitment of drivers and conductors in the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation.
• Upon this claim, Arulmani had collected Rs. 40 lakh from different persons to pay the accused. However, their names were not reflected in the recruitment list. When Arulmani demanded repayment, he was given a cheque but it was dishonored. Also, Arulmani was threatened to not pursue this case forward.
• Since the main accused Mr. Senthil was an MLA and a State Minister at that time, the complainant was hesitant to file an FIR. Nevertheless, he proceeded in 2018 and the charge sheet was eventually filed in 2019 under Sections 406, 420, and 506 of the IPC and the matter came before the Special Court.

Submission by the parties

• When the matter came up, the counsel for the petitioner asserted that all the victims in the case have received the money that was owed to them by the MLA. Hence, they have no objections if the court decides to quash the criminal proceedings.
• The Government Advocate also clarified that the State police were not privy to this information that a compromise was made and the matter was settled between the victim and the accused.
• Observation of the Court
• The court pointed out that the appointment orders and other documents of the alleged transaction were not produced and held that the allegations appear general and vague in nature.
• The court took cognizance of the fact that under Section 320 CrPC, the victim has discretionary power to compound the offence with the permission of the Court. In this case, the court allowed it.
• Thereafter, the proceedings in the Special Court against Senthil Balaji, his brother Ashok and his personal assistant, Shanmugam were quashed by Justice M N Kumar saying that it would be futile to keep the case pending.

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