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Madras HC reviews acquittals of 2 more Tamil Nadu leaders
The DMK has previously said that they would take the issue to the Supreme Court
Chennai:
The Madras high court on Friday took up, of its own accord, a review of the discharge of two more senior politicians – DMK minister I Periyasamy and former AIADMK minister B Valarmathi – in corruption cases probed by the state’s Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC), taking to six, the number of such reviews taken up by Justice N Anand Venkatesh.
“I don’t know how many more cases are to be reviewed. God save this institution and the State,” Justice Venkatesh said on Friday. “Maybe something like the Lokayukta that Karnataka has, is needed here too.”
His reference is to the anti-corruption ombudsman appointed by most states. In 2018, Tamil Nadu became one of the last states to pass a Lokayukta Act.
Under the Act, an independent quasi-judicial body has been constituted with a chairman, two judicial members and two non-Judicial members but activists say its toothless.
In August , the judge issued notices to four other senior politicians, DMK ministers K Ponmudy (higher education), Thangam Thennarasu (finance) and KKSSR Ramachandran (revenue and disaster) and former chief minister and expelled AIADMK leader O Panneerselvam.
“Case after case I see that no legislator wants to face trial. They want to get out of it,” website Bar and Bench quoted the judge as saying in oral remarks. “I have opened a can of worms but someone has to do this. Anand Venkatesh is not the problem here. I am on this seat today, tomorrow I will be gone.”
The revision against the discharge of Periyasamy, minister for rural development, pertains to an order passed by an additional special court for MP/MLAs cases in Chennai on March 17. The court discharged him from a case filed by DVAC in 2012 on charges of allotting a Tamil Nadu Housing Board (TNHB) plot to the personal security officer of former chief minister M Karunanidhi.
Periyasamy was the then housing minister . In the case of AIADMK leader Valarmathi, who was formerly social welfare minister, a Chennai court discharged her in 2021 in a disproportionate assets case . The judge has called for records to examine the two cases.
The development comes a day after minister Ponmudy and DVAC requested that Justice N Anand Venkatesh recuse himself from the proceedings on the grounds that t he made several observations already during the admission stage. Recording their submissions, the judge on Thursday said he would take a call on it on September 14.
The DMK has previously said that they would take the issue to the Supreme Court.
