The Supreme Court of India has set aside the anticipatory bail granted by the Madras High Court to a man and his wife accused of cheating his 75-year-old mother in a multi-crore property dispute.

In its order passed on May 15, a Bench of Justice Sanjay Kumar and Justice K. Vinod Chandran strongly criticised the repeated filing of anticipatory bail petitions, calling it an “abuse of process.”

The case arose from an FIR lodged by Vasantha, a 75-year-old woman from Tamil Nadu, who accused her son Karthikeyan Manikandan and daughter-in-law Vasupradha of cheating her of huge sums from family property transactions.

According to the complaint, the accused allegedly convinced her to transfer family properties in her name and later facilitated the sale of over 11 acres of land. While she was informed that the property was sold at ₹85 lakh per acre, she later discovered that the actual sale price was allegedly ₹2.75 crore per acre and that nearly ₹22 crore had been secretly received by the accused.

Vasantha also alleged that huge sums deposited in her bank account were withdrawn by the accused using cheques and that her house was transferred in the name of her son on the promise that he would maintain her. She further claimed that she was later thrown out of the house and left homeless.

The Supreme Court noted that the accused had filed three anticipatory bail applications within three months and managed to secure relief from the High Court without disclosing that an earlier bail plea had already been rejected by another Bench.

The Court observed that the High Court failed to consider whether there was any “change in circumstances” justifying a different view while granting anticipatory bail.

“Filing of anticipatory bail petitions in quick succession in this manner... reduces that legal process to a mere gamble and is nothing short of an abuse of process,” the Bench observed.

The apex court further criticised the High Court for treating the matter merely as a real estate business dispute, despite serious allegations involving financial exploitation of a senior citizen by close family members.

The Court also took note of the State’s submission that custodial interrogation was necessary to trace the flow of funds and investigate the financial transactions, but the accused allegedly failed to cooperate with the investigation by not producing relevant documents.

Allowing the appeal filed by Vasantha, the Supreme Court quashed the Madras High Court’s September 15, 2025 order granting anticipatory bail to the accused.

Case Details:-

Special Leave Petition (Crl.) No. 17310 of 2025)
Vasantha
versus
State of Tamil Nadu and others 

Appearances:-

For Petitioner(s) : Ms. Manju Jetley, AOR, Mr. S.D. Dwarakanath, Adv.
For Respondent(s) : Mr. Sabarish Subramanian, AOR, Mr. V.R. Shunmuganathan, Adv., Ms. Anuradha Arputham, Adv., Dr. Ram Sankar, Adv., M/s. Ram Sankar & Co., AOR