The Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) on Friday claimed before the Madras High Court that 73% of assets owned by former Milk and Dairy Development Minister K.T. Rajenthra Bhalaji were disproportionate to his known sources of income between the check period of August 25, 1996, (when he became the vice-president of the Thiruthangal Town Panchayat in Virudhunagar district) and March 31, 2018.
Appearing before Justice M. Nirmal Kumar, State Public Prosecutor Hasan Mohammed Jinnah said an inquiry by the DVAC had revealed that the disproportionate assets were not just 5.03% on the basis of which the last AIADMK government had decided to drop all further proceedings against the then Minister.
The matter was being heard following a split verdict delivered in March this year. While Justice Sathyanarayanan had held that the DVAC must necessarily register a FIR, Justice Hemalatha had held that no fruitful purpose would be served in investigating the case when a detailed preliminary inquiry had already been conducted.
Though Mr. Bhalaji had approached the Supreme Court against the reference made by the two judges and had obtained quite a few adjournments before Justice Kumar on the ground that the case was expected to be listed before the top court, the case did not get listed for long and hence the third judge commenced hearing arguments on Wednesday to decide the matter.
Senior counsel M. Ajmal Khan, representing the former minister, contended that his client had been subjected to harassment in the guise of preliminary inquiry for the past eight years. He pointed out that one R. Mahendran had filed a case before the Madurai Bench of the High Court way back in 2013 accusing Mr. Bhalaji of having amassed wealth ever since 1996.
That writ petition was disposed of on January 7, 2014 after recording the submission of DVAC that it would take action in accordance with law. However, surprisingly, after four years, the writ petition was listed again before the Madurai Bench in 2018 under the caption ‘For reporting compliance’ and the hearing in the “disposed” case recommenced once again, the senior counsel said.
Though the DVAC reported that it had dropped action against the then Minister on January 13, 2014 itself and such decision was accepted by the government too on February 4, 2014, the court ordered another preliminary inquiry into the issue by IPS officer R. Ponni. The second inquiry was actually a court monitored inquiry since the officer had filed periodical reports before the court, the senior counsel argued.
After examining over 90 witnesses and collecting equal number of documents, the investigating officer found that Mr. Bhalaji was not able to account satisfactorily only for ₹16.04 lakh which was 5.03% of his total assets. Hence, it was decided to drop all further proceedings and such decision was accepted once again by the government too, he said.
Subsequently, the SPP made his counter submissions and the judge adjourned the matter to September 8 for Mr. Khan to reply to the submissions made by the prosecution.
