On Thursday, DMK MP and Organizing Secretary RS Bharathi, withdrew the petitions filed against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and Revenue Minister R B Udhayakumar, alleging graft charges in the tender process for road maintenance and optical fibre cables laying project.
RS Bharathi had filed a petition alleging corruption against the Chief Minister in the tenders calling for ₹1165 crore road maintenance project. In another petition the DMK MP alleged that Chief Minister and Revenue Minister were involved in graft related to tender worth ₹1,950 crore to lay the cables connecting 12,524 villages
The Madras High Court while hearing on June 16 had observed orally that RS Bharathi should “honourably withdraw” the petitions as there was no scope for corruption.
The High Court passed the dismissal order based on the report closure report filed by Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) that had mentioned that there was no prima facie case made out in the preliminary enquiry. The DVAC, on receiving the complaint of the DMK Rajya Sabha MP, had conducted a detailed verification and found nothing amiss in the process followed for tender. It had said that the allegations were merely based on assumptions rather than material facts.
Public prosecutor A Natarajan representing the state government had filed a detailed counter and submitted that the complaint was “false” and “politically motivated”. He added that the petitioner had failed to exploit other available remedies before approaching the court.
Recording the submission the court dismissed the plea as withdrawn.