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Tamil Nadu agency searches premises of ex-AIADMK MLA in DA case
The 60-year-old leader had humble beginnings running a cycle shop, a milk vending shop along with renting CDs. Later, the agency said he enrolled as a contractor in public works department
The Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) on Wednesday raided multiple locations linked to B Sathyanarayanan, AIADMK’s former MLA from Chennai’s T Nagar constituency, on charges of possessing disproportionate assets accumulated from 2016-2021.
Along with his wife and daughter, he is accused of possessing properties in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
The action comes even as the Madras high court has observed that the state agency has become a “chameleon” probing those in opposition and dropping charges against them once they return to form the government.
The 60-year-old Chennai leader had humble beginnings running a cycle shop, a milk vending shop along with renting CDs and cassettes in the city. Later, the agency said he also enrolled as a contractor in the state’s Public Works Department and ran liquor shops under the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (TASMAC) in Chennai and Villupuram district.
Before he was elected as an MLA from T Nagar in 2016, his assets were worth ₹3.2 crore but along with his family, he had acquired assets worth ₹16.4 crore by end of 2021 by abusing his position, the agency said, adding that this reveals “prima facie” an offence committed by him. The complaint was filed by an activist, B R Aravindakshan.
A 25-page FIR was filed on September 12. Since the DMK formed the government in 2021, the DVAC has cracked down on six powerful AIADMK leaders. The agency has filed charge sheets this year against three former ministers -- R Kamaraj (food and civil supplies minister), C Vijayabhaskar (health) and K P Anbalagan (higher education).
Justice Anand Venkatesh of the high court had said the DVAC swoops down on the opposition leaders whenever a new political party comes to power but no prosecution ends in five years, the lifespan of an elected government in Tamil Nadu. Invariably, after the opposition is voted back and the DVAC, “like the puppets in the Muppets show will have to perform a different tune in tandem with its political masters,” he said on August 31.
The justice has taken on his own accord (suo moto) review of the discharge by special courts for MPs/MLAs of six senior politicians in Tamil Nadu in cases probed by the DVAC. Besides the DVAC, the court issued notices to DMK ministers I Periyasamy (rural development), K Ponmudy (higher education), Thangam Thennarasu (finance) and KKSSR Ramachandran (revenue and disaster), and former chief minister and expelled AIADMK leader O Panneerselvam, and AIADMK’s B Valarmathi (former social welfare minister).
