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DVAC questions ex-AIADMK minister for 2nd day in graft case
When DVAC had issued summons earlier, Vijayabhaskar had sought time until local body elections were complete to appear before officials.
Former AIADMK transport minister M R Vijayabhaskar on Tuesday appeared for the second round of questioning before the officials of the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti Corruption (DVAC) in a disproportionate assets case. He was raided by officials in July after they had filed a case against him during his tenure between 2015 and 2021.
A case was registered against Vijayabhaskar, his wife Vijayalakshmi and his brother Sekar under Section 13(2) r/w 13(1)(b) and 12 r/w 13(2) r/w 13(1)(b) of the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018 in July. On July 22, more than 20 places linked to Vijayabhaskar in his native Karur district and his Chennai residence were searched by the officials. The officials had seized ₹2,556,000 of unaccounted cash, sale deed documents, documents of investments made in insurance policies and documents related to transactions in the business firms, in which Vijayabhaskar is a partner and other incriminating documents.
“Today, the former minister was enquired till 1.30 pm. After that, he requested that he be allowed to attend to a matter related to the writ petition filed by him in the honourable High Court of Madras related to the panchayat vice president elections in Karur and further requested to continue the inquiry after Deepavali,” said a senior DVAC officer not wishing to be named.
The investigating officer questioned him for six hours on Monday. “Since this is the first time he is coming in, there aren’t too many details we gathered, but we will continue further questioning,” the official said. “He had also submitted a letter that he may be let go after six hours of questioning.”
When DVAC had issued summons earlier, the former minister had sought time until local body elections were complete to appear before officials.
Since the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) formed the government in Tamil Nadu in May, the crackdown on Vijayabhaskar was seen as the ruling party’s first strike against the opposition All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK). Since then, three other powerful AIADMK leaders were searched on charges of corruption – former municipal administration minister S P Velumani, former health minister C Vijayabhaskar and former commercial taxes minister KC Veeramani – all of them are known to be close to former chief minister Edappadi Palaniswami. On Friday, the second round of raid was conducted in four places linked to former health minister Vijayabhaskar and at 26 locations linked to R Elangovan, the chairman of the Tamil Nadu State Apex Cooperative Bank, who is also said to be an aide of Palaniswami as they both hail from Salem. One of the DMK’s election promises is to establish a special court to try graft charges against AIADMK ministers from the previous regime. When the DMK was in the opposition, they had levelled corruption charges against top cabinet ministers, including Palaniswami and O Panneerselvam to the then governor Banwarilal Purohit.
