HC judge now takes up asset case against OPS

CHENNAI: A decade after he was discharged from a disproportionate assets case, the Madras High Court is set to take up a criminal revision petition against ousted AIADMK leader and former chief minister O Panneerselvam.

Justice N Anand Venkatesh, who previously initiated similar action against DMK leaders causing considerable heartburn in the ruling camp, is set to hear the fresh revision petition on Thursday.

The case dates back to 2006 when the DMK returned to power. The Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) filed a disproportionate asset case against Panneerselvam, with the charge sheet claiming that the then AIADMK leader had amassed substantial assets, over and above his known sources of income, when he was a minister between 2001 and 2006.

The agency claimed that Panneerselvam’s assets, which stood at Rs 17 lakh in 2001 (before he became a minister) rose to a whopping Rs 1.67 crore in just five years during which he was in power. The charge sheet cited OPS as the prime accused, and also named his wife Vijayalakshmi, brothers Raja and Balamurugan, and their wives, Sasikalavathy and Latha Maheshwari.

Panneerselvam filed a petition before the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court, seeking a direction to transfer the case against him from the special court at Madurai to the Sivaganga principal court. Considering the petition, the Madurai bench transferred the case to the Sivaganga court.

In 2012, a year after the AIADMK came to power and Panneerselvam was back in the saddle as a minister, the court in Sivaganga acquitted him and his family members from the case citing insufficient evidence against them.

Now, however, Justice Anand Venkatesh has initiated a suo motu revision petition to take up the disproportionate case against the senior leader, who is already facing a crisis after the courts rejected his efforts to challenge AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami.

This is the fourth such case that Justice Venkatesh is taking up, after initiating revision petition against Ministers K Ponmudy, KKSSR Ramachandran and Thangam Thennarasu.