Tamil Nadu Prison officials under DVAC scanner for swindling Rs 1.6 cr

CHENNAI: Sleuths from the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption on Friday raided and searched 11 places including Chennai and Madurai in connection with the allegation that certain officials of Central Prison, Madurai, between 2019 and 2021, had indulged in corrupt practices by purchasing raw materials for manufacturing huge quantity of stationery articles.

They were also accused of manipulating Prison records relating to the supply of stationery articles to the government departments. The FIR registered in Madurai by the DVAC has cited 11 suspects in the case; of which, three are prison officials and the rest are private individuals.

Officials cited in FIR are M Urmila, present superintendent of Cuddalore Central prison and former Madurai prison superintendent, S Vasantha Kannan, additional superintendent of Palayamkottai Central prison and former jailor of Madurai Central prison, and M Thiagarajan, administrative officer in Vellore Central prison and formerly AO of Madurai prison. According to the FIR, they agreed to fraudulently purchase raw materials and secured a good quantum of benefits by making false entries in the relevant records and registers. They manipulated the records and used them as genuine documents for misappropriation of government funds to the tune of Rs 1.63 crore – being the value of file pad, small cover, medium cover and big cover.

The DVAC had slapped the case against the officials and private individuals under the offences of 120-B, 467, 468, 471, 167, 409 IPC and 13 (2) r/w 13 (1) (a) of Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 as amended by Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act 2018. Private individuals cited as suspects are VM Jafarullakhan and Mohammed Ansari of Madurai, VMJ Mohamed Ali Mannady, S Sreenivasan and his wife Shanthi of Kodungaiyur, S Sankarasubbu and his wife Dhanalakshmi from Tirunelveli and their daughter Venkateswari in Chennai.