Madras HC: Take action against friend to PA of former minister if guilty
Chennai: The Madras high court has directed the Vepery police to consider the statement recorded from witnesses along with documents and register a case, if any cognizable offence is made out, on a complaint alleging that V.S. Thennarasu, claiming to be a close friend to the personal assistant of former state transport minister, had collected Rs 1.14 crore on the promise of getting jobs in transport department and cheated the public.
Passing orders on a petition filed by J. Sridharan, working as an assistant manager in Tamil Nadu transport department, Justice R. Mala directed the inspector of police, Central Crime Branch, Vepery, to consider the statement from the witnesses along with the documents and register a case, if cognizable offence is made out following the dictum laid down by the Supreme Court in Lalita Kumari’s case.
According to petitioner, his native place was Villupuram district. During his work, he was introduced to one Thennarasu by a conductor Saravanan. Thereafter, they became friends. Thennarasu told him that he knows the state transport minister Senthil Balaji and he was a close friend to the minister’s PA Ramesh. He also showed the appointment orders obtained by him and informed him that he got employment for more than 50 conductors and drivers. He also asked him to inform him the candidates who received the interview letters and he will arrange employment to them.
On believing his words and in order to help his relatives and villagers, he gave the details of the interview letters of the candidates and paid a total sum of Rs 1.86 crore to Thennarasu. However, Thennarasu arranged jobs only for three drivers and informed him that he spent Rs 6 lakh for the same. But, he could not arrange jobs for others. When he asked him to return the money, he informed him that he paid Rs 30 lakh to Rajkumar for arranging conductor jobs for 10 persons. He also informed him that he had paid Rs 1 crore for getting orders from the new minister. However, he could not arrange jobs as promised. When he insisted on repayment of the money, he paid Rs 66 lakh.
