"AIADMK regime conducted tainted investigation on me", says Thangam Thennarasu in suo motu case

CHENNAI: The then AIADMK government conducted a tainted investigation to ruin me, submitted minister Thangam Thennarasu before the Madras High Court (MHC), in the suo motu criminal revision initiated against his discharge from the disproportionate asset (DA) case.

Senior counsel Ranjith Kumar appeared before Justice N Anand Venkatesh, for Minister Thangam Thennarasu and his wife Manimegalai, submitted that it is a politically motivated case lodged to ruin his client.

In 2011, the AIADMK party came to power in the State and wielded its power to lodge a case against Thangam Thennarasu and his wife through the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC), said the counsel.

Even though the minister disclosed the documents accounting for his assets, the DVAC ignored it and conducted a tainted investigation, submitted the counsel.

The counsel read out the subsections of 173 CrPC to support the legality of the final closure report filed by DVAC, which led to Thangam Thennarasu's discharge.

Another senior counsel A Ramesh, appeared for the couple and submitted that the new amendment in 173 CrPC allows to preclude any further investigation in respect of an offense after a report has been forwarded to the Magistrate.

Further investigation can be done during the trial, the counsel added.

The matter was posted to February 29 to continue the submission of senior counsel A Ramesh. The judge also summoned the DVAC investigation officer who gave a clean chit to Thangam Thennarasu in the DA case.

On August 23, last year Justice N Anand Venkatesh initiated suo motu criminal revision against the discharge of Thangam Thennarasu from the DA case, an unusual pattern followed in the case.

"When investigation officers in corruption cases start dancing to the lullabies of the politicians in power the concept of fair and impartial investigation would be reduced to a mere charade", wrote the judge, while initiating the suo motu.

In 2012 the DVAC booked minister Thangam Thennarasu and his wife Manimegalai for amassed assets that were far in excess of their known sources of income between 2006 - 2010 when Thangam Thennarasu was the education minister of the then DMK regime.

However, after Thangam Thennarasu became a minister in the new regime of DMK in 2021, DVAC filed an intimation for further investigation and submitted a final closure report with a clean chit to the accused. On the basis of the report, the then-principal judge of Srivilliputhur discharged Thangam Thennarasu and his wife from the case.