NE NEWS SERVICE
CHENNAI, AUG 10
The anti-corruption cell of the DMK government in Tamil Nadu is conducting raids at various premises linked to former AIADMK municipal administration minister and Coimbatore strongman SP Velumani after a court directed the state last month to “get to the bottom of the matter”.
According to reports, the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption is raiding 52 locations linked to Velumani and his associates. Over 10 officials with the DVAC are conducting inspections at his residence in Coimbatore, and more are probing at other locations in Chennai, Coimbatore and Kanchipuram.
Efforts to reach Velumani did not elicit any response.
According to the FIR filed by the DVAC, the case related to instances of favours done to Velumani’s kin in awarding construction and services contracts in the Chennai and Coimbatore city corporations when Velumani was minister.
Between 2014 and 2018, Velumani had awarded tenders to “closely associated companies” under contracts worth Rs 464 crore and Rs 346 crore in Chennai and Coimbatore, respectively, according to the FIR document. The FIR lists companies that Velumani himself had been a director of, before his resignation to qualify to stand for lawmaker elections in the last term.
The FIR said there were violations of the tenders rules in Tamil Nadu across the board in the tendering process—from bidding to negotiation to execution of work.
The FIR lists a few examples of “collusive bidding” to indicate the level of cronyism present in awarding contracts, and termed the revelations as “only the tip of the ice-berg.”
Even before winning the elections in May this year, the DMK had been stridently after Velumani, who had been growing politically in Coimbatore. Social activists such as the Arappor Iyakkam had been periodically bringing out tender rule violations by departments that had functioned under Velumani.
