Chennai: Similarities in charges in disproportionate assets (DA) cases filed against two DMK ministers during AIADMK rule in Tamil Nadu, and similar “closure reports” filed later under the DMK regime, caught the attention of Madras High Court judge Anand Venkatesh, who Wednesday sent ministers K.K.S.S.R. Ramachandran and Thangam Thennarasu to face trial at a special court in Virudhunagar.
The high court set aside the trial court order discharging incumbent state finance minister Thennarasu and revenue minister Ramachandran in the DA cases, and directed the special court to frame charges against them and conduct trial as expeditiously as possible on a day-to-day basis.
The court passed the order while allowing two separate suo motu revision petitions initiated by Justice Venkatesh against the discharge and acquittal of the two ministers.
The DA case against Ramachandran was lodged in 2011, after the AIADMK came to power in Tamil Nadu under J. Jayalalithaa, and the one against Thennarasu was registered in 2012. The AIADMK gave way to the DMK in 2021, after 10 years of rule. Closure reports were filed in the cases in 2022.
Speaking to ThePrint, political analyst Raveendran Duraisamy termed the revision of the ministers’ previous acquittals as a big blow to the ruling DMK.
“It would come as a big blow to the DMK since corruption is one thing that is always being raked up against the party, whenever it comes to power. At least as a damage control measure, the chief minister (M.K. Stalin) could have let go of the senior ministers facing revision pleas in graft cases and given opportunity (in his government) to young blood,” he added.
DMK’s organising secretary R.S. Bharathi, who is also an advocate, told ThePrint the party would fight the revision petitions in the Supreme Court.
He also asserted that “all our leaders have never feared facing the cases”.
“Everybody has faced the cases and come up clean. The ministers who are facing the revision pleas will also face trial and come up clean,” he said.
ThePrint reached Ramachandran and Thennarasu for comment via phone calls. The report will be updated if and when their responses are received.
Also Read: Amid tiff with AIADMK, TN BJP chief Annamalai gets a boost from Rajnath — ‘can be national leader’
Similarities in decade-old cases
The charges against Ramachandran and Thennarasu date back to the period between 2006 and 2010, when the DMK was in power in Tamil Nadu.
Setting aside their acquittals, Justice Venkatesh said there was prima facie material to proceed against the two ministers.
Terming the handling of the cases as one of the worst forms of abuse of power, the court noted there was a similar modus operandi in the functioning of the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC), a unit of the Tamil Nadu Police that investigated the DA cases.
On 20 December 2011, the DVAC registered a case against Ramachandran, his wife R, Aadhilakshmi and friend KSP Shanmugamurthy for allegedly amassing wealth worth Rs 43 lakh that was beyond their known sources of the income in the period between 1 April, 2006, and 31 March, 2010.
Ramachandran was then the minister for backward classes. Though an extensive chargesheet was filed against the three accused in a special court in Madurai in 2012, the case dragged on and remained pending until 2021, when the DMK came to power.
On 15 September, 2021, the DVAC filed a petition seeking “further investigation” into the case. Later, however, it filed a closure report stating that the accused did not have any disproportionate assets and only had savings of about Rs 1.49 lakh. The closure report was accepted in October 2022 and all three accused were acquitted of all charges in July 2023.
The case against Thennarasu was on similar lines. The DVAC filed a case against him in February 2012, accusing him and his wife T. Manimegalai of amassing disproportionate assets worth Rs 74.58 lakh between 15 May, 2006 and 31 March, 2010. Thennarasu was school education minister in the DMK government between 2006 and 2011.
Though a chargesheet was filed in 2012, the case dragged on until 2021. After the DMK came to power, the DVAC filed a petition seeking further investigation into the case and later in October 2022, filed a closure report similar to the one filed in Ramachandran’s case.
The closure report said there weren’t any disproportionate assets and the couple had only Rs 1.54 lakh as savings. Thennarasu and his wife were acquitted of all charges in December 2022.
Looking at the similarities in the cases, Justice Ventakesh said the investigation agency had misused the provisions of sections in the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).
“DVAC misused its power of further investigation under Section 173(8) of the CrPc and submitted a final closure report for discharging the accused, which was happening only in the state of Tamil Nadu and did not find a parallel anywhere else,” the court noted.
Justice Venkatesh also said in his order that the politicians and the common man of the state would be equal before the courts.
He has now directed Ramachandran to appear before the trial court on 9 September and Thennarasu to appear on 11 September to face proceedings.
‘May cost DMK dearly’
Thennarasu and Ramachandran are not the first DMK ministers asked to face court proceedings.
In August 2023, when Justice Venkatesh was assigned the portfolio of cases against sitting or former MPs and MLAs at the Madras High Court, he took up suo motu revision pleas against the acquittal and discharge of six politicians, including four DMK ministers and two former AIADMK ministers in Tamil Nadu.
Of the four DMK ministers, the first to face the revision proceedings was rural development minister I. Periyasamy, who was discharged in a 12-year-old illegal land allotment case in March 2023.
In February this year, Justice Venkatesh ordered the special court for cases against MPs and MLAs in Chennai to commence trial against Periyasamy and complete it on or before 31 July. However, the order was later challenged in the Supreme Court, which stayed the trial.
At a time when at least two sitting DMK ministers — Higher Education Minister K. Ponmudy and Fisheries Minister Anitha Radhakrishnan — and former minister V. Senthil Balaji are facing an Enforcement Directorate inquiry and charges under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, Duraisamy said the image of the DMK is likely to get hit.
“In just two years, we are to face the assembly election. In such a scenario, it is a chance for the opposition to rake up the issue against the DMK,” he said.
Ponmudy was last year convicted in a different case and was disqualified as MLA and minister. Later, he was reinducted into the ministry after the SC set aside the conviction.
“Ministers being in the limelight every now and then for wrong reasons may cost the DMK dearly in the 2026 assembly elections,” Duraisamy reiterated.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)