The Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) on Tuesday informed the Madras High Court that it had completed a preliminary inquiry on a complaint lodged by DMK organising secretary R.S. Bharathi on June 13, alleging large-scale corruption in the award of civil contracts by the Highways Department — a portfolio held by Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami.
Justice A.D. Jagadish Chandira was told that S. Venkatachalapathy, Additional Superintendent of Police, Special Investigation Cell, DVAC, had even submitted a draft final report to the Director and the Vigilance Commissioner on August 28.
The submission was made in a counter affidavit filed by the investigating officer who, however, did not disclose whether it was a positive or a negative report.
FIR sought
“Further course of action would be decided [based] on the recommendation of the Vigilance Commission. The petitioner (Mr. Bharathi) has sought registration of a case (First Information Report) and investigation of the complaint. A preliminary inquiry has been conducted in accordance with the law,” the officer said, urging the court to dismiss the petition.
He said the complaint was promptly taken up for preliminary inquiry on June 22, and that the information was also communicated to the complainant. The allegations made in the complaint pertained to two tenders floated through the Tamil Nadu Road Sector Project - II, two by the Tamil Nadu Road Infrastructure Development Corporation and one by the Highways (Construction and Maintenance) Department.
Though the complainant had specifically alleged irregularities in the award of eight different contracts, two of them were funded by the World Bank, Mr. Venkatachalapathy said. Stating that the preliminary inquiry was undertaken on a day-to-day basis, the agency said that even then, it took more than two months to complete it because the issue pertained to the award of tenders, involving the perusal of voluminous documents.
“The progress in respect of the inquiry has been noted in the General Diary. There is no lethargic attitude in the conduct of the investigation,” the investigating officer said, and reserved his right to file a detailed, para-wise counter affidavit to the present petition. The present counter was confined to apprising the court of the status of the preliminary inquiry, he added.
After going through the counter affidavit, the judge adjourned the hearing on the direction petition to Friday.
