MADURAI: Criticising the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) for failing to take action on a graft complaint against a superintendent working in Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU), the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Wednesday ordered a CBI probe into the allegations.
A bench of justices G Jayachandran and KK Ramakrishnan passed the order on a PIL filed by the complainant, G Venkateshan, seeking the appointment of a special officer or committee for an impartial and time-bound inquiry into the allegations made by him against superintendent (Planning and Development), SV Gomathi.
Venkateshan in his petition said Gomathi has acquired several immovable properties disproportionate to her income by receiving illegal gratification for issuing certificates, enabling unlawful college admissions and appointments, leaking internal documents of the varsity, among others.
He submitted a complaint before DVAC in August last year.When he sought details of its status through the RTI Act, he came to know that instead of investigating his complaint, DVAC had simply forwarded his complaint to the university for verification.
Hearing the petition, the judges observed that corruption in universities cannot be tolerated. They criticised the DVAC SP for failing to conduct factual verification on the complaint. Merely forwarding the complaint to the employer concerned (MKU) and waiting for their response is not factual verification, they noted.
Citing serious lapses on duty by the DVAC and the university in the issue, they transferred the investigation to the CBI and disposed of the petition.