Former School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) has approached the Madras High Court with a plea to quash a First Information Report (FIR) registered by the Chennai Central Crime Branch (CCB) police on June 27, 2026 in connection with the alleged illegal collection of over ₹100 crore from various private schools in the State during the erstwhile DMK regime.

Justice V. Lakshminarayanan would be hearing on Monday (September 28, 2026) a sub application filed by him to dispense with the production of original copy of the FIR. The CCB had booked the FIR against the president of an unregistered association of private schools B.T. Arasakumar and his alleged accomplices following a complaint lodged by D.C. Elangovan, president of a registered association.

In his complaint to the Greater Chennai Commissioner of Police A. Amalraj on June 23, 2026 Mr. Elangovan had alleged the prime accused, by claiming to be close to the ruling dispensation, had collected crores of rupees from the managements of various private schools for offering services such as obtaining approvals for upgrading schools, gaining permanent recognition and securing building plan approvals.

Listing out the names of 13 other individuals — Muthukumar, G.R. Sridhar, Palaniappan, Chandrasekaran, Dinesh, Einstein, Subbiah, Suba alias Subramaniam, Suseendran, Deivasigamani, Senniappan, Janagarathinam and ‘Bank’ Subramaniam — as the accomplices of the prime accused, the complainant had urged the police to probe into the role played by the former Minister too and initiate appropriate action.

Pursuant to the complaint, the CCB had arrested the prime accused on June 27 and subjected him to custodial interrogation. Thereafter, he was detained under the Goondas Act on July 11 and his wife had challenged the preventive detention before the High Court by way of a habeas corpus petition. She claimed a civil dispute between office-bearers of two associations had been given a criminal colour.

As part of their investigation, the CCB sleuths went ahead and conducted searches at nine places connected to Mr. Poyyamozhi in Chennai as well as Tiruchi on September 16 besides summoning him for inquiry on September 18.