Former AIADMK minister R Vaithilingam booked by DVAC

Chennai: Tamil Nadu’s Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) has booked former housing minister and expelled AIADMK leader R Vaithilingam and his family members for allegedly receiving bribes from a real estate major in lieu of granting planning permission for a housing project. 

The filing of the case comes just days after the DVAC booked another former AIADMK minister S P Velumani, a close confidante of party general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami, for alleged corruption in awarding tenders relating to stormwater drain and road work of the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) in 2018.

In an FIR filed on Friday, the DVAC booked Vaithilingam, who now owes allegiance to O Panneerselvam after being expelled from the AIADMK, his sons, and Shriram Properties. The agency alleged in its FIR that the above mentioned company routed Rs 27.9 crore bribe money to a shell company run by the family of Vaithilingam for grant of permission for planning of a residential complex. 

The real estate major had sought permission to construct about 1,500 residential housing units and office space on a 58 acre plot in Perungalathur on the Chennai-Tiruchirapalli national highway. The FIR was filed based on a complaint filed by Arappor Iyakkam, an anti-corruption NGO run by Jayaram Venkatesan, with the DVAC. 

Vaithilingam was housing minister from 2011 to 2016 during the AIADMK regime. The FIR said Shriram Properties submitted a planning permission proposal before the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) for construction of an office-cum-residential complex in Perungalathur in December 2013. 

“However, the file which was pending for more than a year received approval on February 24, 2016 (days before the assembly elections were announced),” the DVAC said, adding that the approval was sanctioned only after Shriram Properties routed the money to a shell company owned by the sons of the minister.

“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,” the DIR added.