Ex-DMK minister Anbil Mahesh arrested in Rs 100 crore school approvals case after High Court denies bail

According to the police, about 177 schools were linked to collections of more than Rs 100 crore, which were described as a party fund, with the assurance that pending applications would be cleared. They say that Mahesh collected money directly in this name, and that witnesses have confirmed meeting him, discussing the money and being assured that government orders would be issued to meet the schools' demands. The evidence cited includes material from digital devices and witness statements. Other reports speak of more than 1,000 schools, and it is not clear whether the collections went beyond the 177 that investigators have tied to the case.

Mahesh has been booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act and named as an accused, along with allegations of criminal breach of trust. The reports differ on which sections are invoked, and the Enforcement Directorate is reported to have opened a separate money-laundering case, though that detail is not in every account.

Others in the case

The arrest follows earlier ones. B.T. Arasakumar, president of the Tamil Nadu Private Schools Association, was arrested on 27 June along with two others, Suresh and Raja, and was later given bail by the Madras High Court. Muthukumar, a former MLA and an office-bearer of the Tamil Nadu Parent-Teacher Association, is described as a close aide of Mahesh. Police have searched premises linked to Mahesh and his associates in Chennai, Tiruchy and other places.

Mahesh has denied the charges and challenged the case, and he has also sought to have the First Information Report quashed. The opposition DMK has accused the ruling TVK government of using investigating agencies against its political opponents. The arrest is a blow to the DMK, which has spent months describing the case as a vendetta.

Tamil Nadu's politics changed this year, with the TVK in power for the first time and the DMK in opposition after five years in office. A case against a former minister is read by the DMK as retaliation and by the government as accountability, and the courts will decide which view is closer to the facts.

Mahesh will be produced before a magistrate, and the police are expected to ask for his custody to question him about the money trail, the people who handled the collections and the devices that have been seized. His lawyers can apply for bail in the lower court and challenge the denial of anticipatory bail in a higher court. The investigators will also have to show how the money moved, who received it and whether it reached the party.

Mahesh's lawyers are expected to argue that the money, if any was collected, was a matter for the schools and the party and not a bribe for official favours, and that the complaint is politically driven. The prosecution will have to show a link between the collections and specific approvals. The case matters beyond the arrest. Private schools in Tamil Nadu depend on recognition, and many have complained over the years of delays and demands for payment at every step. If the allegations are proved, they would point to a system in which approvals were priced. If they are not, the case will become a further example of the argument over the use of investigators in state politics. In either case the schools that paid, if they did, face questions of their own about why they did.