The Madras High Court Bench here on Thursday ordered the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) to register a case with respect to misuse of public money to the tune of Rs. 32.88 lakh for entertaining guests of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Tiruchi district secretary K.N. Nehru when he was the Minister for Transport between 2006 and 2011.
Allowing a direction petition filed by a former employee of Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC), Justice S. Nagamuthu expressed shock over the allegation of diversion of TNSTC funds to meet the air travel, food and lodging expenses of the Minister’s guests in Tiruchi having been proved in an enquiry conducted by an Inspector of Police in 2012.
“The preliminary report (submitted by the Inspector to the Vigilance Commissioner on March 9, 2012) clearly makes out cognisable offences warranting investigation. When such is the case, I do not understand as to why instead of registering a case, the Inspector recommended only departmental action against the TNSTC officials concerned,” the judge wondered.
He said that the Inspector, attached to the DVAC wing in Tiruchi, had admittedly examined 62 witnesses and collected 56 documents before recommending departmental action against 18 TNSTC officials, including the then Deputy Manager Rajendran. It amounted to conduct of a preliminary enquiry in which “illegal” use of public funds had been confirmed, he added.
‘A menace’
“Corruption in public life is a menace to the peaceful existence of society. It is like a cancer. Like the cancer spreads into the human body so quickly to take away the life if not treated, corruption in public life would also spread in equal pace to take away the soul of society. An offence relating to corruption cannot be, therefore, viewed lightly.
“It needs to be dealt with deterrence. There can be no justification to refuse to register a case when there are prima facie materials that the public servants and the persons in the helm of affairs have misappropriated public funds for their own use, thereby indulging in corruption,” he concluded.
The petitioner, N. Govindaraju, had filed the direction petition on the basis of information obtained under the RTI Act.
