Just over a month after the main opposition party in the state demanded a probe into allegations of corruption by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami, the DMK has approached the Madras High Court seeking a probe into ‘disproportionate assets’ amassed by Deputy Chief O Panneerselvam.
According to a report in the Times of India, the plea was filed by DMK’s Organising Secretary RS Bharathi on Monday. He mentioned in his PIL that he had already made a complaint in this regard to the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti Corruption (DVAC) in March this year.
The complaint states, “Panneerselvam has gained unlawfully and has amassed wealth and invested the same in companies and properties either in his name or in the name of his benamis. He has thus rendered himself liable under the Income Tax Act, Representation of the People Act, Indian Penal Code, Prohibition of Benami Transactions Act, Prevention of Money Laundering Act, and Prevention of Corruption Act.”
According to a report in the Deccan Chronicle, the DMK alleged that in Panneerselvam’s 2016 Assembly Elections affidavit, he had said that his income for the year 2014- 2015 was Rs 5,80,875 whereas his salary as an MLA was Rs 6,60,000.
Since this coincided with his short stint as Chief Minister when then CM Jayalalithaa was behind bars, he would have also received additional salary for the post, the DMK stated.
According to the newspaper, the DMK also makes several allegations with regard to properties owned by OPS and his family members. The PIL states that investigations need to be conducted into certain undisclosed lands and income from these lands as well as the properties that were reportedly increasing in the name of OPS’s wife.
DMK also contends that companies owned by OPS sons P Raveendranath Kumar and V Jayapradeep had purchased land worth over Rs 68 crore.
The PIL also accused the DVAC of not having acted on a corruption charge against a public servant.
The move just over a month after the DMK submitted a similar complaint to the DVAC on Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami. In June this year, the DMK lodged a complaint with the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption alleging corruption in the allocation of five highways project contracts to various firms owned by relatives or ‘benamis’ of the Chief Minister.
On Monday, Income Tax raids took place in several offices and properties of SPK Group, highways contractor mentioned in the DMK’s plaint- with sleuths reportedlyrecovering Rs 160 crore in cash and 100 kg of gold bullion.
Also read: IT raids on offices, properties belonging to TN highways contractor
Source: The News Minute