Preliminary report filed in favour of Velumani, TN govt tells HC

CHENNAI: The State government on Friday told the Madras High Court that the preliminary enquiry report filed by DVAC during the AIADMK regime in the tender violation case against former minister SP Velumani was completely in favour of the accused and that the fresh case was filed on the basis of the CAG reports and revelations.

Advocate General R Shunmugasundaram made this submission before the division bench of justices PN Prakash and RMT Teeka Raman.

The court was hearing a petition filed by Velumani to quash FIR booked on charges of awarding Chennai and Coimbatore corporation tenders illegally. He also prayed for quashing a DA case booked against him.

“The preliminary enquiry was done in favour of Velumani when AIADMK was in power. It does not have legal backing. It’s a procedure to decide whether an FIR can be filed or not,” the AG argued.

Representing Velumani, senior counsels SV Raju and Siddharth Dave submitted that the CAG report tabled in 2021 did not find fault with the award of tenders but it pointed out the flaws only in the implementation.

Countering such submissions, the AG argued that the report clearly indicated the injudicious award of contracts.

Since Velumani’s counsel submitted that the case was filed only against the minister and no officer was booked in the case, the AG said that there are several unnamed officers booked as accused in the FIR. “We’ve the list of names and are ready to submit the same before the court,” the AG added. “New materials were found during the investigation held by DVAC and in the CAG report on the irregularities.”

Senior counsel NR Elango, representing DMK organisation secretary RS Bharathi – one of the complainants submitted that the complaint was not due to political vendetta.

V Suresh, counsel for Arappor Iyakkam, said the organisation’s complaints against the former minister, who wielded so much clout in the previous government, were based on the documentary materials collected through RTI Act.