MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Tuesday stayed the proceedings initiated against the president of Nagudi village panchayat of Pudukkottai district over alleged misappropriation of Rs 47.86 lakh panchayat funds. Justice GR Swaminathan passed the interim order on a petition filed by the panchayat president R Sakthivel challenging the memo issued to him by the Director of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj department on January 18, 2023 for recovering the aforesaid amount from him.
According to Sakthivel, a clerical assistant, who is working as the panchayat secretary, had forged his signature and also that of the vice president and two officials to embezzle the amount. Sakthivel claimed that though he gave a representation to the Chief Minister's special cell seeking action against the secretary in this regard a year ago, no action has been taken.
Instead of recovering the amount from the secretary, the government has initiated proceedings against me, Sakthivel stated and requested the court to quash the same. He also wanted the court to appoint an expert committee to verify the accounts of all village panchayats in Aranthangi panchayat union from 2013 till now. Hearing the plea, Justice Swaminathan passed the interim order and adjourned the case to January 31.