SRM group chairman Pachamuthu back to Puzhal prison

Chennai: SRM group chairman T.R. Pachamuthu was remanded back to judicial custody on Wednesday after custodial interrogation lasting 10 hours. The sleuths from Central Crime Branch (CCB) brought him to their office in the Old Commissionerate campus on Pantheon Road at around 7.30 am from Puzhal prison, after completing a medical examination.

Over hundred questions were posed to the suspect in a multi-crore medical seat sale scam. ‘How is Vendhar Movies Madhan connected to you?' 'How long since you have been running the medical institute?’ ‘How many seats so far were filled through merit and how many were sold?’ ‘How many seats were filled through Madhan?’ ‘How much did Madhan get for every seat filled?’ ‘What were the other arrangements between Madhan and SRM group of institutions?’ - Those were the prominent questions posed to Pachamuthu whose replies to most questions were monosyllabic in nature.

It is learnt Pachamuthu had admitted to having used Madhan as an admission agent. Five hours into the interrogation, the CCB sleuths permitted Pachamuthu to meet his lawyers for about 10 minutes. A similar meeting was permitted at around 5.30 pm when the custodial interrogation had come to a close.

Following a post interrogation medical examination, the suspect was produced before the XI Metropolitan Magistrate Court. Pachamuthu was subsequently remanded to judicial custody by the court. The investigation into the scam began as an offshoot of a probe into the case of the ‘missing’ Madhan whose whereabouts are not known since May 28.