DMK's RS Bharathi withdraws plea alleging corruption by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister

CHENNAI: DMK MP RS Bharathi on Thursday withdrew both the petitions filed in the Madras High Court alleging corruption in awarding tenders for a road maintenance project and laying fibre optic cables across the state.  

Justice N Sathish Kumar had orally observed that the leader should "honourably withdraw" the petitions since there was no scope for corruption while hearing them on June 16. The High Court passed the dismissal order in view of the closure report filed by the DVAC claiming that there was no prima facie case made out in the preliminary inquiry.

After arguments, the counsel for the petitioner, senior advocates Shanmugam Sundaram and N R Elango, prayed before the court for withdrawing the petitions after which they were disposed of.

Bharathi in his petition raised corruption allegations against Tamil Nadu CM Edappadi K Palaniswami in the tenders calling for a Rs 1,165 crore road maintenance project.

Similarly, he filed another plea to register FIRs against ministers over the alleged corruption in tenders calling for laying fibre optic cables in over 12,000 villages at Rs 1,950 crore.

State Public Prosecutor A Natarajan filed a detailed counter stating that all the allegations against the CM and ministers were false and had been made for the sake of publicity.

Recording the submissions, the court dismissed the plea as withdrawn.