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3 builders booked for bribing officials in Tamil Nadu: DVAC
The Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption in Chennai has registered an FIR against three builders for allegedly bribing officials and representatives between 2015 and 2017. The accused individuals are T Udhayakumar, Sunil Khetpalia, and Maneesh Parmar. The case involves payments totaling over ₹50 crore.
Chennai: The Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) on Thursday registered an FIR against three builders for allegedly bribing government officials and people’s representatives between 2015 and 2017 when the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) was in power, said officials of the agency aware of the development.
Searches were conducted in multiple locations in Chennai over the charges that the three people from construction companies bribed various officials across departments with more than ₹50 crore to obtain clearances to build a multi-storey apartment in the city.
The accused individuals are T Udhayakumar, managing director, Landmark housing projects, Sunil Khetpalia and Maneesh Parmar who are directors of KLP Projects Private Limited. Besides them, “unknown officials of various departments and people’s representatives are involved in the case,” DVAC’s FIR read.
The case had gone to the Madras high court in 2017 when a man, Rajiv Naidu, initiated legal proceedings against Landmark housing projects. The first accused, Udhayakumar, submitted documents to the high court and a sworn statement to the Income Tax department disclosing cash payments worth more than ₹50 crore to different public servants. The court directed the DVAC in 2018 to complete a preliminary enquiry within four months, officials said.
A day before the national lockdown was imposed due to Covid-19 in March 2020, DVAC officials received Udayakumar’s documents in which he had produced a list of names and the amount paid to each of them. Without full names and designations, the list showed that then AIADMK MP Balaganga was paid ₹23 lakh, a DMK worker Jawahar was paid ₹33 lakh and another DMK worker PKS was given ₹10 lakh. A former MLA Neelakandan was given ₹40 lakh, a former MP Venkatesan was given ₹20 lakh and another unnamed former MP was given ₹1.67 lakh. An ex-councillor of the Chennai corporation, Saroja, was paid ₹2 lakh, according to the FIR.
DVAC officials did not disclose full names. Udayakumar also listed cash payments to officials in Metro Water and Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA), but officials did not disclose names. “It is clear that …Udhayakumar paid ₹50,00,86,125 by the way of bribe to various officials and public servants,” the DVAC’s FIR said.
While buying 14.16 acres of land from Binny Limited for ₹370 crore in Chennai’s Perambur, the accused had paid the bribes to execute the project, the DVAC has charged. “This clearly shows how widespread the problem of bribery is,” said anti-corruption activist Jayaram Venkatesan.
AIADMK’s former MP Balaganga told HT he wasn’t aware of the case. “I have not received any bribe. I’ve no connection to this case. What do I have to do with it? They have simply put my name. The DVAC, nobody has contacted me on this,” he said.
