Ex-minister gets conditional bail in engineer suicide case

MADURAI: The Madurai bench of the Madras high court on Wednesday granted conditional bail to former agriculture minister S S (Agri) Krishnamoorthyin senior agricultural engineer S Muthukumarasamy suicide case. He is likely to walk out of jail on Thursday.
Granting conditional bail to Krishnamoorthy, justice K Kalyanasundaram said the petitioner should sign daily at the office of the deputy superintendent office, CB-CID, Chennai metro unit II, till further orders of the court.When his petition came up for hearing, Krishnamoorthy’s senior counsel V Kathirvel said the petitioner is in custody since April 5 and the investigation is almost over by this time and thus, no more further probe is necessary.
The judge then asked state public prosecutor (PP) S Shanmuga Velayutham about the investigation. The PP said the statement of the former minister’s personal assistant, Poovaiah, suggested the role of Krishnamoorthy in the case and the investigation agency was waiting for the details of phone calls made between the deceased and others.
Following it, the senior counsel said when the petitioner had approached the courts seeking bail, the prosecution opposed it stating that they had to record statements from the witnesses. Now, as the petitioner has been in jail for almost two months, his custody should not be allowed to continue. He should be released on bail, he prayed. Following this, the judge granted conditional bail.