Tamil Nadu minister K Ponmudy, wife sentenced to 3 yrs in jail in corruption case

Justice G Jayachandran pronouncing the order, also imposed a fine of Rs.50 lakh each on Ponmudy and his wife

Updated on: Dec 21, 2023, 13:40:10 IST

By Divya Chandrababu

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Chennai: The Madras high court on Thursday sentenced Tamil Nadu higher education minister K Ponmudy and his wife to three years imprisonment in a disproportionate assets case.

Tamil Nadu higher education minister K Ponmudy (PTI Photo)

Justice G Jayachandran pronouncing the order, also imposed a fine of Rs.50 lakh each on Ponmudy and his wife. The court also suspended the sentence for a month to allow him to file an appeal in the Supreme Court.

The high court had already convicted the minister and his wife in the case and pronounced the sentence on Thursday.

The couple was booked in 2011 by the DVAC under the Prevention of Corruption Act between 2006 and 2011 when Ponmudy was minister for mines.

Ponmudy is the first serving Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam minister to be sentenced in a corruption case.

On Tuesday, the high court had set aside his acquittal by a special court (for cases against MPs/MLAs) in Villupuram in 2016. It allowed the appeal filed by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) in 2017.

After finding the couple guilty on Tuesday, the court directed them to appear in person to pronounce the quantum of the sentence.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Divya Chandrababu
Divya Chandrababu is an award-winning political and human rights journalist based in Chennai, India. Divya is presently Assistant Editor of the Hindustan Times where she covers Tamil Nadu & Puducherry. She started her career as a broadcast journalist at NDTV-Hindu where she anchored and wrote prime time news bulletins. Later, she covered politics, development, mental health, child and disability rights for The Times of India. Divya has been a journalism fellow for several programs including the Asia Journalism Fellowship at Singapore and the KAS Media Asia- The Caravan for narrative journalism. Divya has a master's in politics and international studies from the University of Warwick, UK. As an independent journalist Divya has written for Indian and foreign publications on domestic and international affairs.Read More

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