Chennai: New corruption cases have been registered against former AIADMK ministers S.P. Velumani, C.Vijayabaskar. Based on that, anti-bribery police raided 44 places across Tamil Nadu, including their homes, yesterday. In this, Rs.51 lakh cash and important documents have been seized.
SB Velumani was the Minister of Municipal Administration, Drinking Water Supply Department, Rural Development and Panchayat Department during the last AIADMK regime. He is currently the MLA of Thondamuthur constituency.
When SB Velumani was in office, the street lights in the villages were changed to LED lights. There was a complaint against S.P. Velumani that he committed massive malpractices in this scheme and awarded contracts to companies close to him against the rules, causing a loss of around Rs.500 crores to the government.
Accordingly, S. P. Velumani, K. Chandraprakash, Managing Director of KCB Engineers, Kodambakkam Rangarajapuram, R. Chandrasekhar, Company Director and the owners of various companies in Chennai, Coimbatore, Trichy, etc. were charged under the Anti-Corruption Act. The Chennai anti-bribery police registered a case the day before yesterday under Sections.
In 31 places…
Following this, the anti-bribery police conducted raids yesterday on the persons against whom a case has been registered, including former minister SB Velumani, and their respective places. The test was conducted simultaneously at 9 locations in Chennai, 14 in Coimbatore, 2 in Trichy, 3 each in Tiruvallur and Chengalpattu.
When anti-bribery police arrived at SB Velumani’s house in Sukunapuram, Coimbatore yesterday morning, he was at home. He also cooperated after the police informed him that they had come to search his house. The police later raided his house.
Similarly, raids were conducted at Chandraprakash’s house near Kodisia, Sabari Electricals in Anna Nagar, Beelamedu, Ganesa Traders Electricals in Trichy, Samihas Agency run by Suthakaran in Thiruvanaikaval Ganapathy Nagar, and ACE Tech, a heavy vehicle spare parts manufacturing factory in Badurmedu near Poontamalli in Tiruvallur district.
Medical college admission
Former Health Minister and current Viralimalai MLA C. Vijayabaskar was accused of giving certificate to a private medical college and hospital in Manjakaranai village of Tiruvallur district in violation of National Medical Council norms during his tenure. Anti-bribery police registered a case against 7 people including C.Vijayabaskar in this matter.
Anti-bribery police also raided the houses of Vijayabaskar and his close relatives yesterday in connection with the case. A total of 13 locations were searched, 5 in Chennai, 3 in Salem, 1 each in Madurai, Theni, Pudukottai, Thiruvallur and Tambaram.
The search was conducted at the concerned private medical college and hospital in Tiruvallur district, its owner’s house, Vijayabaskar’s apartment on Adyar LP Road, Chennai, and an apartment on Rems Street, Killipakkam.
During this search, Rs 32.98 lakh in cash, 1,228 grams of gold jewellery, 948 grams of silver articles and 10 four-wheelers were recovered from the premises belonging to SB Velumani. Also, 316 documents related to the case, 2 bank vault keys have been confiscated.
Similarly, in the search conducted at the places related to C.Vijayabaskar, Rs.18.37 lakh cash, 1,872 grams of gold jewellery, 8.28 kg of silver articles, 120 documents, one hard disk, one pen drive, 2 iPhones, 4 bank safe deposit box keys were seized. Anti-corruption police said the investigation is ongoing.
CV Shanmugam is obsessed
When the search was going on at C.Vijayabaskar’s house in Adyar, Chennai, former minister C.V.Shanmugam came there. The police stationed for security at that time did not allow him to enter. He then got into an argument with the police. Due to this, there was a commotion for a while.
Father’s complaint
The Speaker of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, M. Appavu, had sent two complaints to the anti-bribery division police on May 20, 2019 and July 15, 2020 against former minister S. P. Velumani and others. In it, ‘In response to the old street lights in the gram panchayats for energy saving and maintenance reasons, LED lights have been gradually changed from 2015 to 2018. The bidders who participated in the tender for this work as suppliers of LED lights are fake or have no experience in selling electronic products. They are none other than SP Veluni’s proxies. In the last financial years 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18, the former minister S.P. Velumani, his administrative officers and the members of the state-level committee set an additional price for the LED lights purchased over the market price. It was said that the rural development and panchayats department has suffered a loss of Rs.500 crore due to this. A case has been registered based on these complaints.