Chennai: The tussle between the M.K. Stalin-led government in Tamil Nadu and the state’s Governor, R.N. Ravi, escalated Thursday when the latter sought more details on the government’s request to prosecute four former AIADMK ministers for alleged graft, prompting the ruling party to question if the governor was trying to save the ministers.
A statement released by the Raj Bhavan Thursday, said that in one of the cases, the state’s Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government under Stalin had to submit a duly “authenticated copy of the investigation report for further action”.
In retaliation, the DMK has questioned in a statement whether the governor was trying to save the former AIADMK Minister in question.
Tamil Nadu law minister S. Raghupathy in a statement the same day said that though the governor’s recent press release claims that the Raj Bhavan was yet to receive the files on one of the former ministers, it had previously acknowledged the receipt of the files.
“It is unbecoming of the governor’s office to say that they haven’t received the final investigation report, which was acknowledged as received 298 days ago,” said Raghupathy.
He added: “It is also not clear why the governor who so quickly wrote seeking Minister Senthil Balaji’s removal, is not allowing the court proceedings in the corruption case to proceed and is now giving an unsubstantiated excuse.”
Raghupathy in his statement also asked if the governor was trying to protect the AIADMK minister.
Following Balaji’s arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a cash-for-jobs case, Ravi had last month written to the government dismissing the minister. He later, however, put the order on abeyance.
The ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu has been at constant loggerheads with the governor over the past many months over issues like Dravidian ideology, Sanathana Dharma, appointing of vice-chancellors to state universities.
The party also accused the governor of acting like a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) agent in the Balaji case. The BJP and its ally AIADMK form the opposition in Tamil Nadu.
The prosecution issue of the former AIADMK ministers relates to former commercial taxes minister B.V. Ramanaa and former health minister C.Vijaya Bhaskar, who are among those accused of taking bribes to the tune of Rs 39.91 crore and allegedly permitting the storage, transportation and sale of banned gutkha in Chennai. The case is being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
In a separate case, the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) had registered a case against former AIADMK minister for commercial taxes and registration, K.C. Veeramani, under the Prevention of Corruption Act, for allegedly acquiring illicit assets worth Rs 28.7 crore.
The agency is also probing former transport minister M.R. Vijayabaskar in an alleged disproportionate assets accumulation case.
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The case of the AIADMK ministers
The Raj Bhavan statement came a day after Regupathy’s letter to Governor R. N. Ravi seeking his assent to prosecute the former AIADMK Ministers in alleged graft cases. The law minister appealed that the governor gave his assent to prosecuting the four — C. Vijaya Baskar, B.V. Ramana, K.C. Veeramani and M.R. Vijayabhaskar — without further delay.
ThePrint has a copy of the letter.
Raghupathy had also appealed to the governor for his approval on 13 bills passed by the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly and pending the governor’s approval.
But the governor in his statement said that in the cases of former commercial taxes Minister B.V. Ramanaa and former health minister C.Vijaya Bhaskar, the cases have been investigated by the CBI and these are under legal examination.
With regard to the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption’s (DVAC) case against former minister for commercial taxes and registration K.C. Veeramani, the statement said, “the same could not be acted upon due to the fact that the State Government has to submit a duly authenticated copy of the Investigation report for further action”.
On former transport minister M.R.Vijaya Bhaskar’s case, the Raj Bhavan said that it has “not received any reference or request in respect from the State Government”.
The letter sent by Raghupathy to the Raj Bhavan Wednesday had said that on 12 September last year, the state cabinet had forwarded the CBI’s request to the governor’s office to prosecute Vijayabaskar and Ramana in the gutkha scam case.
With regard to the DVAC seeking sanction to prosecute K.C. Veeramani and M.R. Vijayabhaskar, the state cabinet had sought the governor’s approval on 12 September last year and again on 15 March this year, stated the letter.
The law minister alleged that all the representations were pending before the governor.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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