Chennai: The state government has informed Madras high court that many steps have been taken pursuant to the report of former Madurai Collector U.Sagayam, appointed by the court as the one-man commission to probe Madurai granite scam.
Advocate-General A. L. Somayaji said this when a PIL filed by social activist 'Traffic’ Ramaswamy came up for hearing before a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M.M. Sundresh on Thursday.
In its brief order, the court said Advocate-General submitted that many steps have been taken in pursuance of the report. The question would be as to how further investigation has to be carried out and whether it was required to be entrusted to CB-CID or CBI or the current situation be maintained.
“We would like to have further one more report filed by the state government. Notice to standing counsel for CBI. For further proceedings, post the matter on June 7”, the Bench added.
On Thursday, when the case came up for hearing, the chief secretary filed a reply affidavit. During the hearing, Somayaji submitted the reply was only an interim reply. Responses on the report from several departments were yet to be received.
The interim reply has been prepared on the basis of comments received from some departments. The observations and recommendations of the commission were considered by government. Many steps have been taken in pursuance of the report, he added and sought more time to file a final reply.
M. Radhakrishnan, counsel for Sagayam, submitted that the interim reply was clear that most of the observations and recommendations of Sagayam Commission were acceptable.
The government only says the quantum of total loss to the exchequer (Rs 1.11 lakh crore) was on the higher side. Every recommendation of Sagayam Commission has been broadly accepted. This being the position, the only option was to hand over further probe to CBI, he said.
