News Brief
Annamalai Urges Due Cognisance Of Disproportionate Assets Cases Against Other Ministers While Welcoming Madras HC Action In Ponmudy Case
Annamalai wants Madras HC to look into recent acquittals of ministers Thangam Thennarasu, Geetha Jeevan and KKSSR Ramachandran
Welcoming the suo moto revision of the acquittal of senior Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) minister K Ponmudy taken up by Justice N Anand Venkatesh of the Madras High Court, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state president K Annamalai said that the party wishes for due cognisance to be taken on the recent discharge and acquittals of ministers Thangam Thennarasu, Geetha Jeevan and KKSSR Ramachandran in similar disproportionate assets cases.
In scathing remarks on the then Principal District Judge, Vellore, Justice Venkatesh in his order wrote that the judge had gathered the evidence from 172 prosecution witnesses and 381 documents in a span of four days to deliver the judgement just a couple of days before retirement.
"This unique feat of industry on the part of the Principal District Judge, Vellore, can find few parallels, and it may well be said is a feat that even judicial mortals in constitutional courts can only dream of ", he added.
Thangam Thennarasu
Thennarasu, who is the Finance Minister in the current government was discharged by the Principal District and Sessions Court in Srivilliputhur in December 2022 from a case filed against him and his wife Manimegalai by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti Corruption (DVAC) for accumulating disproportionate assets during his tenure as School Education minister in 2006-11.
They had filed a plea stating that the DVAC chargesheet against them had inconsistencies.
Geetha Jeevan
Geetha Jeevan, the minister for social welfare, her brother N Jegan Periasamy and three other family members were acquitted in December 2022.
In December 2022, the Thoothukudi District & Sessions Court acquitted social welfare minister Geetha Jeevan, her brother N Jegan Periasamy, who is also the Thoothukudi mayor, and three other members of her family in a disproportionate assets case filed against them during the AIADMK government in 2001.
Geetha Jeevan was Thoothukudi district panchayat chairperson during that period and the DVAC filed a case charging her of amassing wealth — disproportionate to their known sources of income — to the tune of ₹2.31 crore during the DMK’s rule between 1996 and 2001.
KKSSR Ramachandran
A case was filed by the DVAC in 2011 against Ramachandran, his wife Adhilakshmi and a close aide Shanmughamoorthy for accumulating disproportionate assets amounting to Rs 43 lakh.
He had approached the Madras High Court to quash the case in 2016. However, the Court ordered a re-investigation.
The DVAC then submitted a report giving them a clean chit. The Virudhunagar court then discharged them based on this report.
Ramachandran is the Revenue minister in the current government.
