A preliminary inquiry against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami has commenced following corruption charges against him by the DMK, the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) on Friday informed the Madras High Court.
Advocate General Vijay Narayan made the submission on behalf of the DVAC when the plea came up for hearing.
"We received the complaint on June 22 and immediately began a preliminary inquiry. The investigation is going on," Narayan said.
Countering this, senior counsel NR Elango, representing DMK, submitted that as per the directions of the Supreme Court such preliminary probe should be completed within seven days, in case of the DVAC it should be completed by two months. The two months period expired on August 22, he added.
Concurring with the submission, the court asked Narayan as to why the DVAC had not completed the inquiry in two months. At least a case should have been registered by now, the judge said and directed the DVAC to file its counter by September 4.
In his petition, DMK organising secretary RS Bharathi alleged that the Chief Minister, who is also the state highway minister, had abused his power to allocate five highway laying and maintenance projects worth Rs 3,500 crore to firms owned by his relatives and benamis.
"Palaniswami, being a government servant, entered into a criminal conspiracy with his relatives and benamis, and thereby committed criminal misconduct and obtained undue pecuniary advantage for himself. These offences attract punishment under the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act," Bharathi said in his affidavit.
Although a complaint was made on June 13 against Palaniswami, no action had been taken by the DVAC, the petitioner alleged and wanted the court to direct the DVAC to register a case and commence preliminary probe immediately.
