CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Advocate-General R Shanmugasundaram on Monday registered his protest against the appearance of senior advocate and Additional Solicitor General S V Raju before the first bench of the Madras High Court to defend AIADMK former Minister S P Velumani in a corruption case.
When the petition from Velumani seeking to quash the corruption cases registered by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) against him came up before the bench of Chief Justice M N Bhandari and N Mala today, the AG took strong exception to Raju's appearance.
"How can a central government counsel represent a corruption case accused," the AG asked.
Raju, recently appointed as the ASG was attached to the Income Tax department.
The Income Tax department had recently conducted raids at the premises of Velumani, the AG pointed out.
Hence, it would be improper for Raju to represent the accused in the corruption case, he said, adding, the DVAC would write a letter to the Centre in this connection.
Raju told the bench the central government had permitted him to appear for Velumani.
The case against Velumani was that he had committed various irregularities and caused huge loss to the State exchequer in the award of contracts for the Corporations in Chennai and Coimbatore when he was the Municipal Administration Minister in the previous AIADMK government.
He had allotted the tenders in favour of his relatives and close friends, the DVAC had charged.
Velumani denied the charges and contended that the case was politically motivated.
Though the DVAC conducted an enquiry following a direction from the High Court and gave a clean chit and the then government dropped the case in December 2019, the subsequent DMK government revived it.