Court dismisses bail plea of Saravana Bhavan MD

Chennai, Nov 11 (UNI) A city court today dismissed the bail plea of R Shivakumar, Managing Director of Saravana Bhavan chain of hotels, in connection with US human trafficking case.

When his petition came up for hearing before the Second Metropolitan Magistrate Egmore, the prosecution submitted that the investigation was at a preliminary stage and said the Investigating agency had seized incriminating documents and DVDs during raids.

The investigating agency suspect that the DVDs might contain details about the nature of forgery being committed by Mr Shivakumar, while sending cooks for his hotel outlets to various countries, by producing fake documents.

The prosecutor said since the investigating agency had to go through the documents and evidence seized during the raids, the court should not enlarge the accused on bail.

Following this the Magistrate dismissed his bail plea along with another petition seeking ''A'' class facilities in the Puzhal prison, where he was lodged after his arrest on November eight.

Mr Shivakumar, the son of Saravana Bhavan Hotel owner Rajagopal, who was convicted in a murder case and out on bail pending the outcome of his appeal against the conviction.

Acting on a complaint of human trafficking to US from the US Consulate here, the CB-CID police arrested him and remanded him in judicial custody.

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