The Madras High Court has directed the city police to register an FIR against the TN Cricket Association (TNCA), of which N Srinivasan of India Cements is the president.
Justice KBK Vasuki passed the order to this effect on Tuesday, on a criminal original petition from Mohanraj, general secretary, of the Jebamani Janata Party of East Abhiramapuram.
According to the petitioner, the TNCA had first told the Chennai Collector that it wanted permission to demolish the stadium which was too old and weak to be used. A while later, when the IPL season began, it used the same premises by giving false information to the State government and thereby endangered the lives of several thousand spectators.
The TNCA letter to the Collector on April 2, 2009, sought permission to demolish the MAC Stadium, stating that “the stadium had outlived its purpose, the structure had become weak, cracks had developed in the column and beams and chunks of concrete were falling down. Structural engineers had advised that demolition was the only way out. We have been incurring heavy expenditure every year for repair and maintenance,” the letter said.
Later, the TNCA approached the PWD seeking stability certificate for the MAC Stadium to conduct IPL matches. It also obtained the stability certificate and a certificate from the PWD, without intimating them about its letter to the Collector on April 2, 2009 regarding the stadium’s condition.
“The TNCA is showing different faces to various arms of the government and is telling a blatant, ill-motivated lie to obtain permission to demolish the stadium. The TNCA, with full knowledge about the sound stability of the stadium, has misrepresented with a criminal intention to cheat the Collector,” he said.
Though petitioner had lodged complaints with the City Police Commissioner on January 7, 2011 and July 19, 2012, he had not registered the FIR as required under law.