The Madras High Court on Wednesday directed the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) to file within six weeks its final report in a case of alleged irregularities in the award of Chennai and Coimbatore Corporation civil contracts during the tenure of former Municipal Administration Minister S.P. Velumani of the AIADMK.
Justice N. Anand Venkatesh issued the direction while refusing to the quash the FIR with respect to Constronics Infra Limited, Aalam Gold and Diamond Private Limited, Constromall Goods, Aalayam Foundations Private Limited, Vaiduryaa Hotels Private Limited and Ratnaa Lakshmi Hotels Private Limited, which were the suspects in the case.
The judge passed the orders after perusing the draft final report submitted in a sealed cover on July 28. He found that the investigation had been completed and the investigating agency was only awaiting sanction orders against some of the accused, from the competent authority, under Section 19(1)(b) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
Therefore, he granted six weeks’ time for obtaining the sanction and filing the final report before the jurisdictional court. On going through the draft final report, he found that the case had been investigated broadly under two major allegations. The DVAC had recorded the statements of 237 witnesses and gathered 936 documents.
The investigating officer had deleted the names of some of the suspects against whom no materials could be collected. The investigating officer had also dropped criminal action against some officials involved in the case and instead recommended only departmental action for alleged commissions and omissions by them in the award of the contracts.
“In view of the above development, this court deems it fit to not interfere with the FIR at this stage. This court has to allow the DVAC to file the final report. The petitioners will have to necessarily await the final report and see for themselves as to whether they have been added as accused persons or their names have been dropped,” the judge wrote.
He pointed out that the former Minister was the first suspect in the case registered in 2021 on the basis of complaints filed by DMK organising secretary R.S. Bharathi and anti-corruption NGO Arappor Iyakkam in 2018 alleging large-scale irregularities and favouritism in the contracts awarded by the two municipal corporations between 2014 and 2018.
However, a Division Bench of Justices P.N. Prakash (since retired) and RMT. Teekaa Raman quashed the FIR with respect to the former Minister alone on November 30, 2022, with a rider that the DVAC could include him as an accused in the final report if the investigating officer ends up collecting fresh materials against him during the course of investigation.
Subsequently, on March 27, 2023, the Supreme Court dismissed an appeal preferred by the DVAC and confirmed the Division Bench’s order. In the meantime, the six private entities had approached the High Court early this year with the present batch of petitions to quash the FIR with respect to them too.
