The Madras High Court on Thursday, April 18, 2024, recorded the submission of the Election Commission of India (ECI) that it would take further action on the seizure of ₹3.99 crore, from three passengers of a train bound to Tirunelveli from Chennai, after the police completes its investigation and files a final report.
Chief Justice Sanjay V. Gangapurwala and Justice J. Sathya Narayana Prasad also recorded the submission of ECI counsel Niranjan Rajagopalan that considering that amount of money, seized at the Tambaram railway station on April 7, was very large, the Income Tax Department too had been intimated about it.
The judges recorded the submissions and disposed of a writ petition filed by C.M. Raghavan, an independent candidate in the Tirunelveli Parliamentary constituency. The petitioner had insisted that the money belonged to BJP candidate Nainar Nagendran, and therefore, said that he must be disqualified.
Stating that another ₹28.5 lakh had been seized from DMK’s Tirunelveli East district secretary’s office on April 4 and that it was meant to bribe voters, the petitioner had insisted upon disqualifying Congress candidate C. Robert Bruce too, by considering a representation made by him to the ECI on April 7. It may be noted that the Congress is contesting in the DMK’s alliance in T.N., under the INDIA bloc.
The petitioner’s counsel A. Immanuel told the court that the election laws provide for disqualification of legislators who are elected through corrupt means and therefore, a direction must be issued to the ECI to take necessary action on the basis of the investigation into the seizures.
Though he also insisted on fixing a time limit for the ECI to take action on the basis of a representation made by the writ petitioner, the Chief Justice said it might not be appropriate to fix a time limit since the ECI would have to wait for the completion of the police investigation.
