E-Paper
Madras HC restores DA case against former CM
The Madras High Court has reopened a 2012 disproportionate assets case against former CM O. Panneerselvam, restoring the trial against him and others.
Twelve years after being discharged in a disproportionate assets case, the Madras high court has reopened the case against former chief minister and expelled AIADMK leader O Panneerselvam (OPS).
Justice Anand Venkatesh on Tuesday set aside an order of a lower court (Chief Judicial Magistrate Sivaganga) discharging OPS and seven of his family members in December 2012. Two of the accused, including OPS’ wife P Vijayalakshmi, have died since then, for which the procedure against them would be abated. Justice Venkatesh has restored the trial against OPS and the remaining accused.
Meanwhile, the jurisdictional court has changed to Madurai district’s Special Court for Trial of MP and MLA Cases. So, the court ordered the records to be transferred from Sivaganga to Madurai before November 27. Following this, the Madurai court can issue summons to the surviving six accused, including OPS, his son OP Ravindranath and brother O Raja.
The order is part of the revision cases, which justice Venkatesh had taken up suo motu against either the discharge or acquittal of six heavyweight politicians of the DMK and AIADMK. The accused had been booked for graft by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC).
The DVAC under the DMK regime had registered a case against OPS for accumulating wealth amounting to ₹1.7 crore disproportionate to his known sources of income between 2001 and 2001 when he was the revenue minister. In 2012, the AIADMK came back to power and the DVAC closed the case and OPS was discharged by the Sivaganga court. Justice Venkatesh last year said that he believed that the discharge of OPS in 2012 set the pattern for the discharge of elected representatives every time the regime changed between the DMK and AIADMK.
OPS had moved the Supreme Court against the high court taking up the revision case against him, which the top court dismissed earlier in March. The suo motu initiated against DMK minister K Ponmudi last August against his discharge in a disproportionate assets case is the first in a series of such action taken by justice Venkatesh. Subsequently, he also initiated suo motu action against ministers Thangam Thennarasu (finance) and KKSSR Ramachandran (revenue and disaster), OPS, I Periyasamy (rural development minister) and former AIADMK minister B Valarmathi.
