FIR filed to silence us, says NGO that alleged corruption in Corpn

In a release, the NGO has claimed that after it exposed corruption in the civic body’s constructions in which M-sand was being used instead of river sand, the Central Crime Branch Cyber Cell filed an FIR against Jayaram Venkatesan, convener of Arappor Iyakkam for creating public alarm and riot.

The NGO condemned the act which was based on the complaint of Superintending Engineer Sakthi Manikandan of Chennai Corporation. The convener was asked to appear for inquiry before the cyber cell on Thursday, but he was not shown any copy of the FIR, the release stated.

“I was shown copy of the video https://youtu.be/2OpNGRMNtNs on M-sand corruption by Chennai Corporation based on which an FIR was filed by the cyber cell. But, I was not given any details of either the complaint or the FIR. The sections in which FIR has been filed pertains to intent to create public alarm and riot. While we believe in the law of the land and have explained the details of the scam to the cyber cell police and it is clear that the series of cases were filed by Chennai police against Arappor Iyakkam to silence us from talking about the corruption in the Corporation,” alleged Jayaram.

The organisation claimed that 6 FIRs, 1 criminal defamation case and 15 civil defamation cases were filed against the NGO last year. It stated that the Directorate of Vigilance and Anticorruption and civic body authorities have not filed any FIRs against corruption cases, while Corporation, Chennai Police and the Minister for Local Administration SP Velumani have misused their power to file the cases against the NGO.