The Criminal Bureau Investigation Court, Madurai, on Tuesday acquitted all the accused in the cremation shed scam.
The judgment delivered by CBI Court Judge M. P. Jaganathan stated that there was no evidence against the accused D. Bharathi, J. Ashok, K. Rajagopal, M. Sathyamurthy, the then Director, Rural Development, J. T. Acharyalu, the then Secretary, Rural Development, former Ministers T. M. Selvaganapathy and P. Eswaramoorthy and S. Mohan and acquitted them. One of the accused, N. Ramasamy, died when the case was in progress.
The CBI's case was that rules were flouted when contracts were awarded to Salem-based industrial cooperative societies for constructing 2,000 cremation grounds in various districts. Besides fixing an exorbitant rate of Rs.30,000 per shed, mandatory provisions were violated by sanctioning 50 per cent of the sum as advance to these societies.
Prosecution witness C. Umashankar, the then Additional Collector and Project officer, District Rural Development Agency (DRDA), Madurai, exposed the alleged scam in 1995.
The Madras High Court on June 17, 2004 had discharged R. Sampath, the then District Collector of Madurai, from the case.
