Chennai, Sep 21 (IANS): Tamil Nadu’s Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) has booked a corruption case against former housing minister R. Vaithilingam, his sons and Shriram Properties in a bribe for planning permission case.
Vaithilingam, his sons Prabu and Shanmugaprabu and director of Shriram Properties KR Ramesh, R Paneerselvam, another director of Muthammal Estates (The shell firm of Vaithalingams sons) and Shriram Properties and four other group firms have been named as accused in the case.
Vaithilingam was housing minister from 2011 to 2016 when AIADMK was in power in Tamil Nadu. He is at present a legislator from the Orathanadu constituency in Thanjavur district.
The DVAC, which is the anti-corruption agency of the Tamil Nadu government, has registered an FIR in which it states that Shriram Properties routed a Rs 27.9 crore bribe to a shell company run by Vaithilingam’s sons.
The money was routed by the Shriam group for getting permission for the construction of 1453 residential and IT buildings on a 57.94-acre plot in Perungalathur near Chennai.
The DVAC registered the case following a complaint filed by Jayaram Venkatesan, convenor of NGO Arappor Iyakkam. It may be recalled that the TN government had accorded permission to file the FIR in this case in July 2022.
The DVAC in the FIR stated that Shriram Properties had submitted a planning permission to Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) in December 2013 for the construction of 1453 buildings and sanction was accorded for the project on February 24, 2016.
The Tamil Nadu Vigilance body in the FIR said that approval was only given after a bribe of Rs 27.9 crore was paid to the minister through a circuitous route to avoid direct payment and easier detection.
The bribe was paid to Muthammal Estates Pvt Ltd, a shell company of Vaithilingam’s sons and was shown as an unsecured loan given by Bharath Coal Chemicals Ltd, a group firm of Shriram Properties.
A detailed money trail has been given by DVAC in the FIR regarding this.