TN minister, four of her kin acquitted in Rs 2.3 crore disproportionate assets case

THOOTHUKUDI:  The Thoothukudi district principal and sessions court on Wednesday acquitted social welfare minister Geetha Jeevan, her brother and Thoothukudi mayor N Jegan Periyasamy, and three other members of her family in a disproportionate assets case filed against them during the AIADMK government in 2001.

According to sources, a disproportionate assets case was filed against six people --- former Thoothukudi MLA and DMK district secretary N Periyasamy, his wife Ebenezer, daughter Geetha Jeevan and her husband Jeevan Jacob, and Periyasamy’s sons NP Jegan and NP Raja --- in 2001 by the then AIADMK government on charges of amassing wealth to the tune of Rs 2.31 crore during DMK’s rule between 1996 and 2001 disproportionate to their known sources of income.

Periyasamy was an MLA and Geetha Jeevan was Thoothukudi district panchayat chairperson during that period.  The DVAC registered the FIR in 2001 and filed a charge sheet in 2003.  

Charges not proved adequately, says judge

The case that was going on in chief judicial magistrate court was shifted to the sessions court a few years ago. Periyasamy died in 2017. Pronouncing the judgment on Wednesday, principal district and sessions judge R Gurumurthy acquitted all the five surviving accused in the case, saying that the charges were not proved adequately.