R. Banumathi, J.

1. Whether Appellant/Inspector General of Police is the employee of the Central Government in the level of Joint Secretary covered by Section 6A of Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946 mandating prior approval of the Central Government; whether investigation is vitiated for non-compliance of Section 6A and whether the 5th Respondent is to be interdicted from investigating the offences alleged to have been committed by the appellant in connection with the case registered in FIR in RC.No.13 (E)/2011-CBI/EOW/Chennai are the questions arising for consideration in this writ appeal.

2. Background facts:-

The appellant is an All India Service Officer of IPS Cadre and was allocated to Tamil Nadu Cadre. In course of time, he got various promotions and at the relevant time he was holding the post of Inspector General of Police in West Zone, which covers Coimbatore and Tirupur where the criminal case was registered against one Paazee Forex Company known as Paazee Forex Trading India Private Limited stating that they collected deposits from public and not returned the said amount to the depositors.

3. On 24.09.2009, Central Crime Branch (for short ‘CCB’), Tirupur suomoto registered Crime No.26 of 2009 under Sections 3 and 4 of Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978 and under Section 420 I.P.C. against the Directors of the Paazee Forex Trading India Private Limited, (i) K.Mohanraj, son of Kathiravan; (ii) K.Kathiravan and (iii) Kamalavalli Arumugam with the allegation that all the three accused cheated general public to the tune of hundreds of crores by collecting deposits in the name of doing forex trade without Reserve Bank of India's licence. In Crl.O.P.No.20857 of 2009 (08.10.2009), the High Court has granted anticipatory bail to all three accused with a direction to the Superintendent of Police, Tirupur to take effective measures for ensuring repayments to the depositors by the accused. By the order of the Director General of Police, Tamil Nadu, dated 23.2.2010, Crime No.26 of 2009 on the file of CCB, Tirupur was transferred to Economic Offences Wing II, Coimbatore and re-numbered as Cr.No.3/2010 - E.O.W.II.

4. On 08.12.2009, Kamalavalli Arumugam (3rd accused in Crime No.26 of 2009) went missing and woman missing case under Crime No.3068 of 2009 was registered by Tirupur North Police Station on 09.12.2009. The said Kamalavalli Arumugam surfaced on 11.12.2009 and on 14.02.2010, she gave representation to the then Deputy Superintendent of Police, Tirupur alleging that she was kidnapped on 08.12.2009 and an amount of Rs.3 crore was extorted from her Company by three Police Officers viz., Rajendran, Dy. Superintendent of Police, Tirupur; V.Mohanraj, Inspector, CCB, Tirupur; E.Shanmugaiah, formerly Inspector, CCB, Tirupur and a private individual viz., Annachi @ John Prabakar. Accordingly on 15.02.2010, the Sections of Woman Missing case was altered to Sections 323, 365, 384 and 354 I.P.C. By the order of the Director General of Police, Tamil Nadu and the case in Crime No.3068 of 2010 on the file Tirupur North Police Station was transferred to CB-CID, Vellore. After considerable investigation, on 15.09.2010, CB-CID, Vellore altered the case to Sections 384, 506(i) and 507 I.P.C., Section 4 of Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Harassment of Women (Amendment) Act, 2002 and Section 7 and 13(2) read with Section 13(1)(d) of P.C. Act against the above said three Police Officers and the private individual Annachi @ John Prabakar. The appellant was directed to attend an enquiry in connection with the case in Tiruppur North Police Station Crime Branch -Crime No.3068 of 2009 on 06.4.2011 and the appellant was interrogated.

5. The depositors, who formed an Association, filed petitions under Section 482 of Crl.P.C. in Crl.O.P.Nos.2691 and 5356 of 2011 seeking for transfer of the investigation from State Police to CBI expressing apprehension that State Police is protecting Directors of the Company an