The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Friday ordered that N. Suresh Rajan, Tamil Nadu Tourism Minister, be discharged from a disproportionate wealth case. Two others were also discharged.
The prosecution case was that Mr. Rajan, being a public servant committed an offence of criminal misconduct by acquiring and being in possession of pecuniary resources and property in his name and in the names of two of his relatives, including his mother, to the extent of Rs. 17.20 lakh as on May 14, 2001. This was disproportionate to the known sources of his income. Hence, he committed an offence punishable under section 13(2) read with 13(1)(e) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The Minister said despite his explanation, the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption unit, Nagercoil, filed a charge sheet before the Chief Judicial Magistrate-cum-Special Judge, Nagercoil.
The petitioners said they filed a petition before the trial court seeking discharge from the case. It was dismissed on September 25 last year.
In the order pronounced here, Justice Aruna Jagadeesan, said the properties in the names of Mr. Rajan's two relatives could not be held to be the properties belonging to the Minister in the absence of any investigation into the individual income of the relatives.
In the absence of any material to show that Mr. Rajan's money flowed into the hands of the other two persons, they could not be said to be holding the properties in their names on his behalf.
It was clear that the prosecution, instead of establishing the link between the assets acquired by Mr. Rajan and the individual income earned by him, clubbed the properties of the other two accused. There was no acceptable reason to club the properties to be considered as the property of the first accused. If the properties of the other two accused were excluded, there was no material to infer that the first accused held assets which were disproportionate to known sources of his income.
