Madras High Court to conclude and will announce if ex-minister S P Velumani really deserves clean chit as stated by the DVAC
Coimbatore: The Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) might have given a clean chit to former local administration minister S P Velumani in the alleged corruption involved in allotting tenders of Chennai and Coimbatore corporations, however, the Madras High Court who is now sceptical in this regard, has come out stating that it could positively and possibly go against accepting the clean chit that was awarded to the former minister if it discovers that ‘day has been turned into night’.
A Chennai-based non-government organisation Arappor Iyakkam has been fighting this cause and has left no stone unturned in doing its best by trying to bring the truth to light. The bid to strengthen its fight for justice by Arappor Iyakkam continues.
In this regard, a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed by the NGO to register an First Information Report (FIR) demanding that a Special Investigating Team (SIT) probes the alleged corruption that the former minister is indeed involved in with regards to allotting tenders of Chennai and Coimbatore corporations.
On behalf of the petitioner, advocate V Suresh submitted that the petitioner has filed a series of counters against the DVAC report. It was also conveyed that the he wanted to make his submission in a physical hearing in the court of law. Taking into consideration all of this, the court of law has adjourned the plea after four weeks.
While Arappor Iyakkam was unavailable for comment on this issue, Velumani’s camp has come down heavily on the Chennai-based NGO. Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, representing the former minister, said that once the state government has accepted the report of the DVAC, nothing else remains. A preliminary inquiry was conducted by a superintendent of police rank officer appointed by the high court. All this is being done by the former minister and his legal team to continue to portray that S P Velumani is non-corrupt and truly deserves that clean chit that the DVAC has granted him.
Reacting to the submission, the Madras High Court bench said: “It is the government which has accepted the report, the court might not have accepted the report…” Adding to this the first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy said “Only if there are stark allegations for action to be taken will we interfere. If there are only small things, that does not interest the court. If the government has accepted the report, the court will not interfere but if day has been turned into night, then the court will not accept the same.” It is a wait and watch game to note if the Madras High Court will call ‘a spade a spade’ in this case.
It may be recalled that on 26 March, the court dismissed a plea moved by the former minister who sought seeking contempt of court action against the NGO in question. S P Velumani did not stop with this. He also went on to accuse Arappor Iyakkam of violating court order by publishing reports on social media accusing him (S P Velumani) of corruption in awarding contracts of Chennai and Coimbatore corporations.
Taking note of the time line of events pertaining to the case, it may be recalled that on 18 October 2019, a division bench of the court appointed superintendent of police Ponni attached to the DVAC to conduct a preliminary inquiry. Having completed the inquiry, a report was forwarded to the then AIADMK state government to take action in this regard. Subsequently, after thoroughly examining the preliminary inquiry report, it was on 22 January 2020, the state decided to drop further action in the matter. Also, it requested the division bench of the court to close the petition.
After more than a year’s gap the move if the former minister really deserves a clean chit in the alleged corruption charges against him has come out in the open is like better late than never, let justice be delivered by bringing out the truth in this case which involves the state’s tax payers money to a whopping crores of rupees.
As of this news story going online, no one from the Arappor Iyakkam camp was available for comment. Political observers maintain the fact that the former minister S P Velumani continues to play victim card in this case which he has been doing all along, ever since this issue came to light,
SimpliCity reached out to S Kalyanasundaram, Spokesperson of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) to learn about how the party plans to deal with these alleged charges against the former minister. In conversation with SimpliCity, S Kalyanasundaram calling it a blatant act of revenge by the ruling state government, conveyed that the former minister and the party is confident that he (S P Velumani) will be awarded a clean chit this time as well. “I would like to reiterate that he (S P Velumani) will come out clean. Why is the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) targeting only this former minister?” He questioned and added “These are just tactics to weaken the opposition party.”
Furthermore, when the AIADMK party spokes person was questioned about the proof against the former minister that the Arappor Iyakkam is all set to present before the court of law, the S Kalyanasundaram said “AIADMK is not clueless if the same evidence that was presented in the past will come up in court again or a new set of proof will come up against the minister.” He also emphasised that in the backdrop of the developments that are taking place, the authenticity of the evidence must be necessarily verified.
The mood amongst the general public is a tone different. A section of the people of Coimbatore have already concluded that if this time the former minister S P Velumani is indeed proven guilty of the alleged corruption charges, the AIADMK party will blame the judiciary system for this. Contradictory, if not proven guilty, the AIADMK will be quick to hold the DMK for tarnishing its image.