State to seek review of court order to register case based on ED info

Chennai: The Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) on Tuesday informed Madras high court that it is planning to move a review against the court's Feb 20 order that directed the agency to register a case based on the information shared by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with alleged corruption in the state's municipal administration department.Advocate-general P S Raman made the submission on a contempt petition moved by AIADMK MP I S Inbadurai, seeking action against the director of the DVAC for failing to comply with the court order and register a case.On Tuesday, when the plea came up for hearing, senior advocate V Raghavachari contended that even after 10 days of the order, DVAC failed to register a case based on the information provided by ED.Recording the submissions, the first bench of Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice G Arul Murugan directed the DVAC to file its response and adjourned the hearing after two weeks."The DVAC is deliberately refraining from registering an FIR against municipal administration minister K N Nehru under extraneous considerations and political influence, defeating the very purpose of the order passed by the court," the MP said.He pointed out that bribe amounts ranging from 25 lakh to 35 lakh were obtained from candidates to fill 2,538 posts of assistant engineers and junior engineers. The ED unearthed credible materials to suspect that the money was obtained through hawala transactions and then brought into the banking system, he added.On Feb 20, the first bench of the court, in its order, pointed out that incriminating materials were seized by the ED, which included copies of hall tickets and details of communications shared among the brothers and other high-ranking personnel in the department who were closely connected to the sitting minister of the department; the same was shared with the director-general of police.