more-in The Special Court for Prevention of Corruption Act, Coimbatore on Monday granted the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti Corruption police custody of suspended Bharathiar University Vice Chancellor A. Ganapathi for five days. The DVAC police arrested him on February 3 on charges of taking ?30 lakh bribe from T. Suresh, Assistant Professor, Chemistry Department, to complete his probation. Special Judge V. John Mino said that starting 4 pm on Monday, Mr. Ganapathi would remain in DVAC police custody till February 16, 6.30 p.m. Directive to police He directed the police not to harass Mr. Ganapathi either physically or mentally, told them to provide access to basic requirements and allow a lawyer to meet him between 6.30 p.m. and 7.30 p.m. He added that the meeting of the lawyer should in no way hamper the investigation. Earlier, the DVAC police through Public Prosecutor S. Sivakumar sought five days custody saying they needed him to interrogate about the four Bank of India cheque leaves for ?29 lakh that were handed over as part of the bribe money. At the time of seizure of ?1 lakh from the Vice Chancellor on February 3, he did not deny taking the cheque leaves but only stated that he was not aware of their whereabouts. Therefore, the police needed his custody to locate the cheque leaves and investigate other aspects related to the case. Senior advocate C. Gnanabharathi, who appeared for Mr. Ganapathi, objected to police custody saying there were infirmities in the affidavit the DVAC police filed. There was every likely of the police planting cheque leaves if the court were to grant custody of Mr. Ganapathi, he said. Countering Mr. Gnanabharathi, Public Prosecutor Mr. Sivakumar said there was no way the police could forge the cheques, as they had informed the court of the serial numbers of the cheque leaves and also serial numbers of the currency notes prior to the trap. Those details were part of the court documents. After hearing the arguments, Mr. Mino allowed the police petition seeking custody.

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