Chennai: Trouble seems to be mounting for Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswamy as the Madras High Court on Friday ordered a CBI probe on alleged corruption in award of contracts by State highways department.
The HC order came on a plea by the opposition DMK. Palaniswamy holds the highways portfolio.
The court asked the CBI to submit a preliminary report within three months and also directed the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti corruption wing (DVAC) to share details of the case with the probe agency within a week.
The DVAC had on October 9 submitted a report in the HC that its preliminary enquiry has found that no cognisable offence has been made out against the CM.
The DMK had initially moved the Madras HC seeking a direction to the DVAC to register a corruption case against EPS based on its complaint.
In its petition, the DMK said it had complained to the DVAC in June this year that multi-crore government highway contracts were given to Palaniswamy’s relatives but no probe was initiated.
The petitioner noted that the Income Tax department had conducted raids on properties of contractors in July this year, including those belonging to Nagarajan Seyyadurai, the managing director of SPK and CO Expressway Pvt Ltd, who is allegedly linked to the chief minister.
The department had recovered over Rs 170 crore of unaccounted cash and gold bullion worth over Rs 100 crore after a 36-hour IT raid on Seyyadurai’s properties.
The petitioner, DMK, later moved an additional plea seeking transfer of the probe to an independent investigating agency claiming that DVAC was techinically under the CM.
Comments
0 comment