The Madras High Court on Tuesday directed authorities to take note of all allegations made by a person in a writ petition against T.P.M. Moideen Khan, State Minister and DMK candidate in Palayamkottai constituency, and take action as per law.
In his petition, A. Asan Jaffar Ali, treasurer of Nellai City MGR Youth wing, Palayamkottai, prayed for a direction to the authorities for conducting a fair and proper enquiry into his complaint of March 21 against Mr. Khan with regard to electoral offences. His candidature should be debarred.
The petitioner alleged that on March 19, Mr. Khan, his party MLA Malairaja and other party workers were distributing Rs.1000 to the general public as ‘advance' for casting their votes in his favour.
Mr. Ali approached the authorities, but they refused to accept his complaint. Since the DMK candidate was committing electoral offences, his act was published in local dailies. Based on this, the Returning Officer issued a show cause notice to him for distributing money on the occasion of opening of party office.
When the matter came up, senior counsel representing the Election Commission, G. Rajagopalan, said the Commission would look into the allegations and take action as per law.
The Bench said that in view of the EC's stand, it was disposing of the writ petition with the direction.
