CHENNAI: In a major relief to Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) told the Madras High Court on Tuesday that no cognisable offence was made out against him and no irregularities were noticed in the award of contracts for six major highway projects in the State.
Advocate-General Vijay Narayan made the submission before Justice A D Jagdish Chandira. Recording the submission, the judge reserved his orders on the petition from DMK’s R S Bharathi, who had alleged corruption in the process.
The DMK organising secretary had alleged that the contracts were awarded to the CM’s close relatives, friends and benamis. Earlier, DMK senior counsel N R Elango pointed out to the judge that the petitioner, who had lost confidence in DVAC and believed it would not hold a fair and impartial probe and had filed an additional affidavit seeking the transfer of the case to a Special Investigation Team.
The AG submitted that DVAC had conducted the preliminary inquiry as per procedure and the findings had already been forwarded to the Vigilance Commissioner. When the judge wanted to know whether the State Highways department and DVAC came under the portfolio of the Chief Minister, the AG replied that while the former came under the CM, the latter (DVAC) did not.