Judge points ‘influence’ finger at Union minister Chennai, June 30: A high court judge’s disclosure that a Union minister had tried to influence him on granting anticipatory bail to two persons has triggered an uproar in legal and political circles, prompting the Centre to say it would investigate the allegation. Justice R. Regupathi of Madras High Court made the revelation last evening while hearing a case of forgery filed by the CBI against a medical student and his doctor father. “A Union minister talked to me. He influenced me to release this petitioner on anticipatory bail,” Justice Regupathi said in open court.The judge, however, did not mention the name of the minister while making the statement at the end of a tense exchange with the petitioners’ lawyer, C.K. Chandramohan. Lawyers and mediapersons, who were hoping that Regupathi would shed more light today, were instead informed that he had requested the chief justice to transfer the case to another judge. In a brief off-the-record chat with reporters in his chamber, Justice Regupathi refused to discuss the matter any further but when pestered to reveal the identity of the minister, he said the question be put to the senior advocate. Chandramohan hails from Perambalur district in central Tamil Nadu, 400km from Chennai. Its Lok Sabha representative is the DMK’s D. Napoleon, a minister of state.

DMK heavyweight A. Raja, cabinet minister for communications and IT, is also from Perambalur and had represented the constituency earlier in Parliament. Sources said Raja, who had to shift to Nilgiris post-delimitation, had practised as a lawyer in Trichy court — the sessions court nearest to Perambalur — where Chandramohan has also appeared. The accused doctor too has a medical practice in Perambalur. The Centre said it would look into the judge’s allegation. “I will verify the case. Only then can I comment,” law minister Veerappa Moily said. In Delhi, Raja said he had no knowledge about the allegations, a PTI report said. “I don’t know anything. I don’t know anything. I don’t know,” he told a TV channel.  Justice Regupathi’s outburst came after Chandramohan had persistently argued for anticipatory bail for Dr C. Krishnamurthy and his medical student son Kiruba Shridhar. The CBI had filed a case against them for forging Shridhar’s mark sheet. The boy studies in a private medical college in Pondicherry.

The judge had earlier rejected a similar plea.  The CBI had also said that the doctor and his son had used two other accused — an official of Pondicherry University and a middleman — to replace the original answer sheet with another to inflate the boy’s marks in the ophthalmology paper after he had failed in two attempts. The father-son duo have since gone missing. Chandramohan denied he had got any minister to pressure the judge. “I know three DMK Union ministers and at least 10 ministers in the state government, but that does not mean I will get them to influence the course of any case,” the lawyer said. He pleaded ignorance about who the judge had in mind. “I personally met the judge and tendered my apology if I had used any harsh language during my arguments.”  Paul Kanagaraj, president of the Madras High Court Advocates’ Association, said: “Any external influence in the functioning of the judiciary should be opposed at every stage. Our association will get the full facts of the case and take suitable action.”