The Madras High Court has taken up suo motu revision of an order passed by Sivaganga Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) on December 3, 2012 permitting the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) to withdraw a disproportionate assets case registered against former AIADMK coordinator O Panneerselvam and his family members in 2006.
This is the fourth suo motu revision petition taken up by Justice N. Anand Venkatesh who had recently initiated similar action against the acquittal of Higher Education Minister K. Ponmudy and discharge of Revenue Minister K.K.S.S.R. Ramachandran and Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu from disproportionate assets cases.
The latest revision petition has been listed for hearing before him on Wednesday. Mr. Panneerselvam had served as Chief Minister for a few months and also as Minister for Public Works, Prohibition, Excise and Revenue during the 2001-06 AIADMK regime. The DVAC had registered a FIR against him after the DMK returned to power in 2006.
The charge was that he and his six family members which included his wife P. Vijayalakshmi (since deceased), son P. Ravindranath Kumar (now a Member of Parliament representing Theni constituency) and brother O. Raja had amassed wealth disproportionate to their known sources of income between May 19, 2001 and May 12, 2006.
The DVAC sleuths completed the investigation and laid a charge sheet before Theni Chief Judicial Magistrate in 2009 when it was also taken cognisance of by the Magistrate. Thereafter, the AIADMK returned to power in 2011 and the DVAC filed a petition before the CJM wanting to conduct further investigation in the case.
The plea for further investigation was allowed by the CJM before the accused approached the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court and got the case transferred from Theni to Sivaganga. In 2012, the DVAC turned a volte face and filed an additional final report before the Sivaganga CJM urging the judicial officer to close the case.
The then Special Public Prosecutor M. Rajendran told CJM S. Karuppiah that no purpose would be served in continuing the prosecution in the light of the “scientific and mathematical” further investigation conducted by the DVAC which did not find any offence to have been committed under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
It was also brought to the notice of the CJM that the then Speaker of the Legislative Assembly P. Dhanapal had accorded sanction to withdraw the case. The State government had also decided to revoke the sanction granted in 2006 for prosecuting Mr. Pannneerselvam, who was holding the Finance portfolio in 2012.
After considering all factors, the Sivanga CJM, on December 3, 2012, wrote: “The present further report discloses that there is no commission of any offence and this court also feels that conducting a trial will only end in acquittal and this withdrawal is in the interest of justice as well as for the public interest. Hence, this court grants its consent to withdraw from prosecution and the accused are discharged from this case.”
Anti-corruption NGO Arappor Iyakkam had taken exception to the CJM’s order in a writ petition filed in the Madras High Court in 2018 seeking a court monitored probe into allegations of Mr. Panneerselvam having amassed wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income since he became an MLA for the first time in 2001.
“As ordinary citizens of this country, we were shocked by the above ruling of the CJM... It is a well-known adage that justice should not only be done but also seen to be done. In the disproportionate assets case, clearly, everything was not above board, and it appears that factors apart from the law seem to have weighed on the decision to withdraw the sanction to prosecute and drop all further proceedings... I respectfully submit that the decision is more due to political factors and not on any valid legal ground,” the NGO’s managing trustee Jayaram Venkatesan had said in his affidavit.
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