NE LEGAL BUREAU
CHENNAI, JUNE 18
The Madras High Court on Thursday dismissed as withdrawn two petitions against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and Revenue Minister alleging corruption in awarding tenders for laying optic fibre cables and strengthening of roads in the state.
In one petition, R S Bharathi, DMK’s organising secretary and Rajya Sabha member, alleged that the Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and Revenue Minister R B Udhaya Kumar have been involved in graft related to tender worth Rs 1,950 crore to lay the cables connecting 12,524 villages.
When the petition came up before Justice N Sathish Kumar, public prosecutor A Natarajan, representing the state government, filed a detailed counter and submitted that a ‘false’ and ‘politically motivated’ complaint was lodged against the Chief Minister.
He said the petitioner, who sought to direct DVAC to register an FIR against the Chief Minister and the Minister, had failed to exploit other available remedies before approaching the High Court.
The DVAC, upon receipt of the complaint by the DMK leader on May 11, did a verification and found nothing amiss in the tender.
The agency said the allegations made by Bharati were based only on assumption without material facts.
The judge, after perusing the counter-affidavit and recording the submissions made by Natarajan and the petitioner, said they would like to withdraw the petition.
Hence, the judge dismissed it as withdrawn.
In the other plea, Bharathi alleged corruption by Palaniswami in awarding a Rs 1,165-crore road contract.
The government submitted that in the preliminary inquiry by the DVAC based on the complaint of the petitioner, prima facie no case has been made out as alleged.
The allegations of corruption and favouritism were mere inference of the petitioner, he said.
Responding to the reply, the petitioner submitted that he would withdraw the plea.
Recording the submissions, the judge dismissed the plea as withdrawn.
