Madras HC sets aside order acquitting ministers KKSSR Ramachandran, Thangam Thennarasu in DA cases

CHENNAI: Justice N Anand Venkatesh of the Madras High Court on Wednesday set aside a special court order that had acquitted ministers KKSSR Ramachandran and Thangam Thennarasu in disproportionate assets (DA) cases and directed the special court to conduct the trial followed by framing of charges.

While pronouncing judgments in the suo motu criminal revision cases, Justice N Anand Venkatesh restored both the cases to the special court and directed it to conduct the case in accordance with law.

He also directed minister KKSSR Ramachandran to appear before the special court on September 9 and minister Thangam Thennarasu to appear on September 11 in the DA cases.

The judge also dismissed the discharge petitions filed by both the ministers and wrote that the final closure report filed by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti Corruption (DVAC) in both cases should be considered as supplementary reports.

The High Court had listed the matter for pronouncing judgement after hearing submissions of all respondents including the ministers and the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC), at length.

Over complaints of amassing assets far above known sources of income when KKSSR was a minister between 2006-2011, the DVAC had in 2011 registered a case against him, his wife R Aadhilakshmi and his friend KSP Shanmugamoorthy. The DVAC then filed a detailed final report in Madurai special court in 2012.

Likewise, in 2012, the DVAC booked Thangam Thennarasu and his wife Manimegalai for amassing wealth between 2006 - 2010 when he was the education minister of the then DMK regime.

Both cases were transferred to the Srivilliputhur special judge citing administrative reasons.

Later, the DMK came back to power in 2021 and both ministers were discharged from the DA cases by the Srivilliputhur special court, which were reopened by the HC judge while looking into cases filed against elected representatives.