The Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) on Tuesday launched simultaneous searches on the premises of former AIADMK Minister S.P. Velumani and his associates at 60 places, including Chennai and Coimbatore.
According to sources in the agency, the Special Investigation Cell registered a case against Mr. Velumani and 17 others, including KCP Engineers Private Ltd., based on the outcome of a preliminary inquiry. Besides the office/residence of the former Minister, DVAC officials also swooped down on the premises of his close business associates, relatives and friends. No information on the seizures or arrests was confirmed by the DVAC till late on Tuesday.
Considered an AIADMK bigwig in the western districts of Tamil Nadu and a powerful Minister in the 2016-21 regime of the party, Mr. Velumani, who was the Minister for Municipal Administration, faced allegations of corruption, which were investigated by the DVAC.
In the FIR registered on Monday, the agency said two complaints were received in 2018 from R.S. Bharathi, DMK MP, and V. Jayaraman, convener, Arappor Iyakkam. A preliminary inquiry was conducted and the report was forwarded to the government. A copy was submitted as a status report to the Madras High Court.
The complainants alleged that Mr. Velumani engaged in largescale favouritism by abusing his official position as the Minister for Municipal Administration in matters concerning the award of “construction” and “supply of goods services” work tenders in the Greater Chennai and Coimbatore municipal corporations to his close associates, including his brother, their relatives and companies associated with them. It was also alleged that unknown officials of the two municipal corporations “blatantly violated all rules of business” in the allocation of tenders under the influence of the former Minister.
The DVAC said that when a writ petition came up for hearing, the Madras High Court directed that “the State should spare no efforts in getting to the bottom of the matter and proceed against those found to be responsible for the regularities”, and that it should conduct an investigation in the light of the Comptroller and Auditor General’s report of 2016, which highlighted that the injudicious awarding of tenders was resulting in huge loss to the government in certain set of works executed by the Greater Chennai Corporation during 2014-18.
Further investigation revealed that between 2014 and 2018, Mr. Velumani wilfully abused his official position in the awarding of work tenders to the tune of ₹810 crore, with the connivance of unknown officials of the Greater Chennai and Coimbatore corporations, thereby providing undue favour to certain firms.
While awarding these tenders, the officials of the respective corporations blatantly violated the Tamil Nadu Transparency in Tenders Act, 1998; Rule 31 of the Tamil Nadu Transparency in Tenders Rules, 2012; and guidelines of the Central Vigilance Commission, among others.
Pointing to serious violations in the tender bidding, tender negotiation and execution of work, as well as the findings in the CAG report, the DVAC gave details of what it described as the high trajectory of growth of some companies that were favoured during the injudicious award of tenders.
After a preliminary inquiry into allegations of irregularities in the award of contracts by the Greater Chennai Corporation and the Coimbatore Corporation, the DVAC found no material to register a case against Mr. Velumani. The counsel for the former Minister informed the Madras High Court in June this year that in January 2020, the State (AIADMK) government accepted the report of the DVAC and dropped all proceedings against Mr. Velumani.
Meanwhile, the DVAC said in a statement on Tuesday that ₹13.08 lakh cash, Fixed Deposit receipts to the tune of ₹2 crore, a computer hard disk, company transaction papers and documents relating to the municipal corporations were among the material seized.