Do not close graft complaints, DMK tells DVAC

Do not close graft complaints, DMK tells DVAC

D.Govardan@timesgroup.com

Chennai: 17.04.2021 

With just about a fortnight left for counting of votes for the Tamil Nadu assembly election, the opposition DMK has urged the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) to keep its hands off corruption complaints already submitted to the agency by the party. “Corruption has been on the rise in Tamil Nadu for the last five years and the DMK has assured the people of the state that those who have indulged in corruption, including the chief minister and his council of ministers, would be brought to book,” DMK organization secretary R S Bharathi said in his petition to the DVAC director on Thursday.

Bharathi said he had been given to understand that the DVAC is taking efforts to close all the complaints relating to corruption received against the chief minister and his council of ministers. He urged the DVAC to “keep their hands off” from these complaints until the new elected government takes charge in Tamil Nadu and not to “heed to any pressure from the ruling AIADMK”.

The corruption complaints have been lodged with the DVAC by the DMK, over the past couple of years, against chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, several of his cabinet ministers and a few MLAs of the ruling party. Subsequently, DMK president M K Stalin had bundled some of these complaints and submitted two memorandums to the Tamil Nadu governor Banwarilal Purohit seeking action, following DVAC’s inaction on the complaints.

“We have submitted several corruption complaints against the chief minister, ministers P Thangamani, S P Velumani and C Vijayabaskar among others. On April 5, we lodged a complaint against deputy chief minister O Panneerselvam too on the illegal allocation of prime land near Koyambedu,” Bharathi told TOI. “We have now received information that attempts are being made to close the corruption complaint files. The police officials and the home secretary are part of the home department, which is part of the chief minister’s portfolio. We have already lodged corruption complaints against the chief minister himself. The AIADMK government is the only entity that can direct officials even now,” Bharathi said.