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Probe started against Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami: DVAC

The MP said he lodged a complaint with the DVAC on June 13, but the agency, for reasons not known, had not taken any action on it.

Chennai: The Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) has informed the Madras high court that it has already started preliminary enquiry based on DMK's complaint alleging corruption charges Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami.

When the matter came up for hearing before Justice AD Jagadish Chandira on Friday, advocate General Vijay Narayan, appearing on behalf of the DVAC, stated, “We received the complaint on June 22, immediately preliminary enquiry has been commenced and the investigation is going on.

Not satisfied with the reply, NR Elango, senior counsel for DMK, submitted that as per the directions of the Supreme Court such preliminary probe should be completed within seven days and in case of DVAC it should be completed within two months.

He said the two-month period has expired on August 22.

Immediately, the judge asked the AG as to why DVAC had not completed the probe in two months. Stating that at least a case should have been registered by now, the judge directed the DVAC to file its counter by September 4 and adjourned the matter to same day for further hearing.

On Thursday, Organising Secretary of DMK RS Bharathi, filed a petition before the court seeking direction to the DVAC to register a case against Palaniswami in connection with corruption charges levelled against him for amassing wealth disproportionate to the known sources of income.

Four weeks after the Court slammed the DVAC and directing the wing to conduct a probe 'as expeditiously as possible' on a similar 'disproportionate assets' complaint levelled against Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam by Bharathi, the DMK leader has filed the present plea before the court.

The MP said he lodged a complaint with the DVAC on June 13, but the agency, for reasons not known, had not taken any action on it.

Bharathi alleged that in violation of the norms of Transparency of Tenders Act 1998 the contracts worth Rs 3,500 crore were awarded to Chandrakanth Ramalingam, related to EPS through his daughter-in-law, P Subramaniam, father-in-law of EPS' son, and Nagarajan Seyyadurai, an alleged benami and they had benefited from the contracts.

( Source : Deccan Chronicle. )
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