CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Friday ordered the constitution of a special investigation team (SIT) to conduct a court-monitored probe into the illegal activities of brick kilns and the plundering of natural resources, particularly sand around these kilns, which is affecting the movement of animals along elephant corridors in Perur taluk of Coimbatore.
The SIT will have two IPS officers: G Nagajothi, serving with the State Crime Records Bureau, and F Shashank Sai, SP of the Organised Crime Intelligence Unit (OCIU) in Chennai.
A special division bench of Justices N Sathish Kumar and D Bharatha Chakravarthy passed the orders on the petitions seeking to protect elephant corridors by cracking down on illegal brick kilns and rampant earth mining. The bench found that the entire government machinery failed to check illegal mining and take action against the culprits.
“Despite the repeated observations by this court, no investigation is being carried out to find out about the orchestrated rampaging of the earth in these areas which can be possible only by organised crime. They laid roads and are making bridges,” the bench said in the order. It noted that the cases should not be closed by merely arraying drivers, cleaners of trucks or a couple of owners of these trucks as accused.
The persons involved in the trade including those who invested money, engaged workers and received illegally mined supplies should be brought before the law. Stating that the trade seemed to involve crores of rupees, the bench said it was necessary to transfer all pending cases to an SIT. It directed the Director General of Police (DGP) to permit the two officers to choose subordinates of their choice.
It directed the SIT to file cases against officials who acted hand in glove with the sand mafia. It also directed the DVAC, Coimbatore, to conduct a “discrete enquiry” regarding the assets of every revenue department official and cops serving in the jurisdiction where the mining happened.
The court asked the state department of information technology to work with Anna University on a monitoring solution based on remote sensing. It directed the setting up of AI-enabled surveillance cameras in the village roads and highways to monitor lorries carrying minerals. It also ordered devising a mobile app and portal with a toll-free number for the public to upload images and make complaints.
The petitioners included S Muralidharan, an activist, Dr Karpagam, and impleaded petitioners Loganathan and Siva. Muralidharan argued his case as party-in-person while advocates SP Chokkalingam and M Purushothaman represented the other petitioners. Advocates T Mohan, C Mohan and M Santhanaraman served as amicus curiae in the matter.
Madras HC vacates stay on corruption probe against V-C of Periyar University
Chennai: The Madras High Court has vacated the stay on the investigations by the police against allegations of corruption and caste-based discrimination against Periyar University Vice Chancellor R Jagannathan. Justice P Velmurugan passed the orders on Friday on the petition filed by the state police seeking to vacate the stay.
Additional public prosecutor S Rajkumar, representing the police, submitted that the police could not proceed with the probe since the investigation was stayed at an early stage and urged the court to vacate the stay so that the probe could be completed. Jagannathan was arrested on the night of December 26, 2023, on charges of misappropriating funds by floating Periyar University Technology Entrepreneurship Research (PUTER) foundation and the lab in the university.
The police also booked him under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act based on the complaint lodged by a leader of the Periyar University Employees Union that the V-C allegedly made statements demeaning his caste. However, the jurisdictional magistrate refused to remand him. Later, the V-C filed a petition in HC seeking to quash the FIR, following which the court had stayed the investigation.
Special court acquits MaSu in 2002 AIADMK councillors attack case
Chennai: A special court in Chennai has acquitted Minister for Health Ma Subramanian and six others in cases pertaining to the alleged assault of certain AIADMK councillors and damaging furniture in the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) building during a council meeting in 2002.
Additional special court for MP/MLA cases Judge G Jayavel pronounced the verdict on Friday acquitting Subramanian, VS Babu, Sivaji, Tamilvendhan, Nedumaran, Soundarya and Moorthy, who were then serving as DMK councillors, finding that the prosecution failed to prove the charges beyond reasonable doubts.
The judge also noted that most of the witnesses had turned hostile. The cases were registered by police on the complaints lodged by AIADMK councillors alleging that they were assaulted and threatened in the council meeting during a discussion on the issue of the fish market in Kannappar Thidal.