Sleuths of the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC), on Tuesday, June 6, 2023 conducted searches at 10 places across Tamil Nadu, including the residence of an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer S. Malarvizhi in Chennai. She was allegedly involved in a scam related to the procurement of receipt books.
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DVAC sources said the searches were held at 10 places including five in Chennai, one each in Villupuram and Dharmapuri districts and three places are in Pudukottai.
Ms. Malarvizhi, who is currently vice chairperson of Science City, had served as the Dharmapuri District Collector from February 28, 2018 to October 29, 2020. While in that post, she had allegedly diverted funds from the State’s Fifth Finance Commission’s grants for the procurement of receipt books for 251 village panchayats.
It was said that 1,25,500 receipt books for property tax, professional tax collections and other forms of tax collection were procured from these funds, from two private firms, at high rates, without the calling for tenders.
The DVAC alleged that Ms. Malarvizhi had conspired with the owners of two firms and swindled ₹1.31 crore from the funds. The DVAC, Dharmapuri unit, had registered a case against her and H. Thageer Hussain of Crescent Traders and Veeraiah Palanivelu of Naga Traders, under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Searches at residence of BDO in Dharmapuri
Sleuths of the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) carried out searches at the house of P. Krishnan, former Block Development Office (BDO) of Pennagaram Union, Dharmapuri district, who is now the BDO of Karimangalam Union.
The searches were in pursuance of an FIR filed against Krishnan and four other individuals for misappropriation of funds in the purchase of bleaching powder in 2019-20.
The allegations pertain to the purchase of bleaching powder by Krishnan, based on administrative sanction by the then Collector S. Malarvizhi, who herself is among the co-accused in a related FIR, in which she is accused of misappropriation of funds and corruption.
Krishnan, the DVAC has alleged, deliberately split 33 panchayats into four zones to circumvent the open tender process and to retain financial power within the sanctioned limit. The discrepancies had revealed the issue of tenders to firms far away from Dharmapuri, and the receipt of bleaching powder – all recorded on the same day. The tenders were also opened and sanctioned on the same day as his transfer from this posting, the DVAC has alleged.
According to the FIR, Krishnan had “created false documents with the utomost intention to swindle the government funds in lakhs together before leaving Pennagaram on transfer.” Krishnan, with the aid of the four other co-accused, who had purportedly supplied bleaching powder, had deliberately swindled government funds without actually procuring the bleaching powder, according to the FIR.
House of contractor searched in Pudukottai
A DVAC team from Pudukottai unit conducted a search at the residence of Palanivel - a government contractor who had carried out works for the Rural Development department. The operation which commenced at around 7.30 a.m. lasted over eight hours.
Palanivel was not available at his residence at the time of the search, DVAC sources said. Palanivel has been named as one of the accused in the case. Another DVAC team conducted a search at the residence of H. Thageer Hussain, a trader, in Pudukottai Town. Hussain has also been named as an accused in the case.
