Petition in Madras HC to direct DVAC to file FIR against erring officers
Chennai: A petition has been filed in the Madras high court to direct the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) to register an FIR against the erring officers and other persons involved in the alleged misappropriation of public funds to the tune of `17.36 crore, allotted to the SC/ST students.
Justice A.D.Jagdish Chandira before whom the petition filed by advocate D.Ashok Kumar came up for hearing, adjourned it to July 24.
Petitioner’s counsel S.Sathia Chandran submitted that the petitioner happened to read a news article published in a Tamil bi-weekly magazine in its issue dated July 3, 2019 with the caption ‘Several Crores SC/ST Scam, Shocking Audit Report’. The article clearly revealed that a whopping sum of Rs 17,36 crore has been misappropriated during the years 2011 -2014, which was allotted to the SC/ST students for payment of scholarships, hostel fees and other necessities. The petitioner got a copy of the entire Special Audit Report after putting in much effort. On reading the same, he found to his shock and surprise that by adopting all illegal methods, several crores of rupees have been misappropriated by government officials and management of the colleges with the connivance of each other, he added.
Sathia Chandran said the scholarship amounts have been misappropriated by several illegal methods. Extracting some of them, the petitioner stated that in the Special Audit Report, it has been clearly mentioned about the various types of fraud committed by them under 37 topics. The Special Audit Report has also mentioned the names of the colleges which have been involved in the huge scam. Several colleges in various other districts were also involved in the misappropriation and looted the public money which was allotted to the poor SC/ST students for their studies. In the light of the Audit report, it was clearly established that the government officials were also involved in the misappropriation. After accessing the said Audit report, the petitioner made a representation to the Director, V & AC and other authorities requesting them to take appropriate criminal action against the persons who were involved in the huge misappropriation of funds allotted to the SC/ST students by registering a criminal case and pr
osecuting them in accordance with law. By a letter dated August 21, 2018, the DVAC requested permission of the government for conducting preliminary enquiry under section 17 (A) (1) of Prevention of Corruption Act. However even after a lapse of several months, the DVAC did not take any action till date, he added.
