Chennai: A CBI probe has been ordered by the Madras High Court over the allegations of corruption in awarding of road contracts by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister E Palaniswami.

A petition was moved by the DMK party of Tamil Nadu, upon which Justice AD Jagdish Chandira gave the direction after perusing the report filed by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption or DVAC.

The High Court said that it was not satisfied with the report received from the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption departments over the complaint lodged by DMK organizing secretary RS Bharathi.

Soon after the judgement, the judge asked the vigilance agency to give out all the relevant documents to the CBI within a timeframe of a week.

The central agency is required to conclude the preliminary investigation within the time period of three months, he said, and further said that if a prima facie case is made through that, it has the permission to proceed further.

The DMK party has alleged that there were irregularities and corruption going on in awarding of road contracts by the state government. It has also accused Mr. Palaniswami of misusing the power he vests and allotting projects valued at Rs. 3,500 crore to his relatives and ‘benamis’.

The fact is that the petitioner sought the court to direct the DVAC to conduct a preliminary inquiry and then register a FIR on its complaint submitted in the month of June.

But, later on, he moved another additional plea seeking transfer of the investigations to an independent investigating team by saying that the DVAC comes under the chief minister.

On September 12, had directed the DVAC to file a report on the day-to-day preliminary investigation that was being conducted by it against Mr. Palaniswami over the complaint.

On October 9, during the period of hearing, counsel for the petitioner said that the party had lost all confidence in the DVAC due to the fact that the agency had been backing the chief minister all the way long.

The advocate general representing for the DVAC refuted the charge and said that the state vigilance agency had already conducted a preliminary inquiry as per the procedures and all the findings by it had been forwarded to the vigilance commissioner.

He further said that the highways department comes under the chief minister while the DVAC is an independent authority and comes under the administration of vigilance commissioner.

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