The Madras High Court on Wednesday overturned two special court orders that had discharged Tamil Nadu Minister for Revenue and Disaster Management KKSSR Ramachandran and Human Resource Management Minister Thangam Thenarasu from corruption cases.
Justice Anand Venkatesh reinstated the disproportionate assets cases against the ministers and directed the trial court to frame charges.
On August 23 last year, Justice Venkatesh initiated suo motu criminal revision proceedings after a special court had discharged the two ministers from disproportionate assets cases.
In his earlier observations, Justice Venkatesh noted that both the accused and the prosecution appeared to have played a “perfect game,” leading him to issue notices to Ramachandran and Thenarasu.
The ministers were originally discharged from the cases in July 2023 and December 2022, respectively.
The Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) had filed the case against Ramachandran, his wife, and a friend of the minister under the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA) on December 20, 2011. The DVAC alleged that they possessed ₹44.59 lakh disproportionate to their known sources of income during the period from April 1, 2006, to March 31, 2010.
In July 2023, Sessions Judge V Thilaham accepted a closure report by the DVAC, which suddenly concluded that the Minister’s family had excess savings of ₹1.49 lakh, rather than disproportionate assets worth ₹44.59 lakh.
Similarly, the DVAC had registered a case against Thennarasu and his wife, T Manimegalai, on February 14, 2012, alleging that the couple possessed ₹74.58 lakh disproportionate to their known sources of income between May 15, 2006, and March 31, 2010. On December 12, 2022, Principal Sessions Judge M Christopher accepted the DVAC’s closure report and discharged Thennarasu and his wife.
When initiating the suo motu proceedings, Justice Venkatesh questioned whether investigation officers and special courts adhered to consistent procedures across all cases or applied different standards when State ministers were involved.
