The Madras High Court has allowed Tamil Nadu Speaker Appavu to withdraw the ongoing corruption cases against former ministers SP Velumani and R Kamaraj and dismissed the cases.
Appavu, a member of the DMK and current Speaker of Tamil Nadu Assembly, had filed a case in Madras high court, a few months ago, against then Minister for Municipal Administration SP Velumani for inflating the price of 23,72,412 LED bulb purchased to be installed across Tamil Nadu.
Similarly, he filed a case against then-Food Minister Kamaraj, accusing him of misappropriating additional food grains allotted by the central government to a rice mill linked to his close relative.
Both these cases were filed in his capacity as former MLA of DMK.
Last February, when the cases were heard before a bench consisting of Chief Justice Sanjiv Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamurthy, an advocate for Appavu told the judges that the case against SP Velumani had been referred to the Lokayukta and the case against minister Kamaraj had been dismissed by the Chief Secretary due to a lack of prima facie evidence.
The cases filed by Appavu came up for hearing before the bench consisting of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy yesterday. The counsel for Appavu submitted that he filed the plea in his personal capacity and that now he was willing to withdraw it, as he was now speaker. Recording the submission, the bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy permitted him to withdraw the plea.
(with inputs from AsiaNetNews)
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