PIL on CM Stalin’s involvement in flyover fraud dismissed

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court dismissed the public interest litigation challenging the cancellation of sanction to probe against Chief Minister MK Stalin in an alleged flyover corruption charge case.

The first division bench of Chief Justice KR Shriram and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy heard the PIL moved by Manickam Athappa Gounder seeking to initiate the probe.

As the petitioner filed an affidavit to withdraw the PIL since he did not want to proceed further with the petition, the bench dismissed the case and directed the registry to return Rs 1 lakh paid by Manickam to prove his bona fide.

The petitioner alleged that during the DMK regime in 1996 - 2001, Rs 115 crore of public money was defrauded by the then CM M Karunanidhi, mayor MK Stalin and minister K Ponmudy through the various projects of laying flyovers across the capital city. In 2001, the then-AIADMK government initiated a probe against the top politicians, and charge sheets were filed. Subsequently, when the regime changed in the State, the sanction allowing the probe against the politicians was cancelled in 2006, said the petitioner.