October 12, 2018:
On Friday, Madras High Court ordered a CBI probe into allegations of corruption in award of road contracts by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami.
Justice A D Jagadish Chandira gave the direction on a petition by the DMK, after perusing the report filed by Directorate of Vigilance & Anti-Corruption (DVAC).
Court said it was not satisfied with the report & the action taken by THE DVAC on THE complaint lodged by DMKs' Organising Secretary R S Bharathi.
Judge then directed the Vigilance Agency to hand over all relevant documents to the CBI within a week.
Central Agency has to conclude the preliminary investigation within 3 month.
It added that if Prima Facie case is made out it could proceed further.
DMK has alleged irregularities & corruption in award of Road Contracts. It has accused Palaniswami of misusing his power & allotting projects worth Rs 3,500 Crore to his relatives & ‘benamis’.
Petitioner originally wanted the Court to direct the DVAC to conduct a preliminary inquiry & register an FIR on its complaint submitted in June.
Later, he had moved an Additional Petiton seeking transfer of the inquiry to an 'independent investigating team' saying the DVAC was technically under the Chief Minister.
Court on September 12 directed the DVAC to file a report on the day-to-day Preliminary Investigation conducted by it against Palaniswami on the complaint.
During the October 9 hearing, Counsel for the petitioner said the party had lost confidence in the DVAC as the Agency had been “supporting” the CM all along.
Advocate General appearing for the DVAC denied the charges and said that the State Vigilance Agency had conducted a preliminary inquiry as per the procedures laid down and its findings had been forwarded to the Vigilance Commissioner.
He also said the highways department came under the Chief Minister while the DVAC was an independent authority under the administration of Vigilance Commissioner.
Source: Hindustan Times
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