HC impleads CBI, asks I-T dept to reply in RK Nagar case

Even as the FIR filed in the RK Nagar by-election cash for vote scam had been quashed, The Madras High Court on Thursday admitted a plea moved by the DMK seeking a CBI probe into the alleged distribution of cash among voters in RK Nagar Assembly bypoll in April 2017 and to make public a 34-page document submitted by the Income Tax (I-T) department leading to the Election Commission (EC) rescinding of the elections then.

Amid heated arguments from both sides with pleas seeking to register a second FIR in the case and that the court can’t dwell on hyper technicalities that the FIR registered has already been quashed and hence no case exists, a division bench comprising Justice M Sathyanarayanan and Justice P Rajamanickam impleaded the CBI as respondents in the case and directed it to file a counter.

The bench also directed the I-T department to file a counter in the application filed by the DMK seeking to make the 34-page report of I-T department and documents related to the case public and posted the case to February 12.

Earlier, senior counsel P Wilson appearing for DMK’s M Maruthu Ganesh submitted that public interest warrants that the documents filed by the Income Tax department be disclosed and taken on record for effective adjudication of the issues on hand and bring to book all the offenders involved in distribution of cash for vote scam.

Noting that the seized documents by I-T, disclosed that Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and his cabinet ministers were involved in the scam and that about 89 crores has been distributed, he said only if the documents filed by the I-T department before this court on January 10, 2019, are disclosed and taken on record all the accused would slip away under the garb of secrecy and confidentiality.

But the bench noted that the FIR based on this has already been quashed by a single judge and there was nothing further to progress and that the details submitted in the sealed cover is available in the type set of papers filed by the public prosecutors.