Minister’s discharge from wealth case challenged in HC

Chennai: The discharge of health minister M R K Panneerselvam from a disproportionate wealth case has been challenged in the Madras high court. When a petition filed by the Cuddalore-based P Ravindran seeking to condone a delay of 310 days in filing the appeal came up for hearing on Thursday, Justice K Mohan Ram ordered notices to the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) and the minister. Panneerselvam was minister for backward classes in the Tamil Nadu cabinet between May 1996 and May 2001. The case of the DVAC was that during the period, due to his criminal misconduct, he had acquired unaccounted assets worth Rs 21.22 lakh. He had been cited as an accused in the case, along with his wife who had been charged with abetment. They faced charges for offences punishable under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988. However, the chief judicial magistrate cum special judge of the Cuddalore district allowed their petitions in July 2007, and discharged them from the case. The state agency has not appealed against the order. The petition, filed by advocates S Jayakumar and V Jayaprakash Narayanan, assailed the discharge of the minister and his wife, stating that the trial court had passed the impugned order despite the fact that the DVAC had placed enough materials to connect the accused with the crime. Charging the minister with dragging the trial proceedings for nearly five years before the discharge, the petitioner said the trial court had erred in concluding that the accused had agricultural income during the check period, and that the DVAC had failed to bring it on record. The petitioner said the minister had constructed a house, and added that the trial court had wrongly concluded that it was his mother who spent money for the construction. He said the court ought to have framed the charges on the minister and his wife and allowed the prosecution to proceed with the case, and added that the court had exceeded its jurisdiction by discharging them. Besides seeking to condone the delay in preferring the appeal, the petitioner wanted the court to reverse the discharge of the minister.

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