After being told by the Chengalpattu police that two South Koreans facing a GST evasion case here may have escaped to their country though the Indo-Myanmar border from Imphal in Manipur, the Madras High Court has directed the CBI to bring back the fugitives.
Justices P.N. Prakash and R. Hemalatha felt the CBI would be the appropriate agency to investigate the issue since it had international ramifications. The court wanted the matter to be probed from all angles, including the possible involvement of local police and staff of the South Korean Embassy in Chennai.
The judges noted that Choi Yong Suk and Choe Jae Won were the managing director and general manager, respectively, of Chowel India Private Limited, a car components manufacturing company incorporated under the Indian Companies Act of 1956. The unit was located in the Sriperumbudur Industrial Estate.The company was accused of having collected over ₹40 crore towards GST but failing to remit the money to the government. The duo was arrested by the GST authorities on June 24, 2019 and granted default bail by an Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate at Egmore, Chennai, on November 19, 2019. Subsequently, they were lodged in a special camp for foreigners in Tiruchi, and hence, they had moved two habeas corpus petitions in the High Court in 2019, challenging their detention at the camp. They also filed two writ petitions in 2020, seeking permission to leave the camp since they feared contracting COVID-19.
The High Court dismissed the writ petitions on April 9, 2020. However, on appeal, the Supreme Court, on June 16, 2020, permitted them to reside at a posh, high-rise apartment, taken on lease by the duo at Oragadam in Chengalpattu district, and directed the local police to provide security there at the cost of the accused.
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In October this year, the State police received intelligence that the duo had planned their escape with the help of locals, and had fabricated certain documents such as Aadhaar cards and passports, since their original passports were handed over to the GST authorities at the time of their arrest in 2019.
On obtaining the intelligence report, the Palur police in Chengalpattu registered a case of cheating and forgery against the duo on October 11. “However, the police did not arrest the petitioners for reasons best known to them,” Justice Prakash wrote in his interim order on the habeas corpus petitions. Though the petitioners preferred anticipatory bail petitions in the forgery case, the High Court dismissed their plea on October 26. Thereafter, they moved the Supreme Court seeking advance bail and, on October 29, obtained an order restraining the police from arresting them. Between October 29 and 30, the petitioners escaped from their residence.
The Palur police registered one more FIR against the duo and began to look for them. Inquiries revealed that the petitioners had reached Imphal. The police suspected that they may have crossed the Indo-Myanmar border and then escaped to their country. It was also suspected that some officials at the South Korean Embassy may have facilitated their escape by giving them fake passports.
Therefore, the judges directed the CBI to take up the investigation since it was the nodal agency for the extradition of fugitives from other countries, and file a status report before the court on January 25.