HC grills investigating officer in case against T.N. Finance Minister
The Madras High Court on Thursday grilled the investigating officer (IO) in a disproportionate assets case against Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu for having opposed the latter’s discharge from the case in 2016 but having made a volte face to file a closure report in the corruption case in October 2022.
Justice N. Anand Venkatesh interacted with the IO R. Boominathan in open court and asked what prompted him to take up further investigation in the case in 2021 despite having filed a detailed counter affidavit on April 12, 2016 opposing the discharge application filed by the accused.
When the lawyers attempted to intervene, the judge asked them to stay away saying: “It is between the court and Mr. Bhoominathan. Let him answer.” The judge initially asked the officer if he had previous experience in handling corruption cases and the latter replied to have had seven years of experience.
Giving reasons for taking up further investigation in the disproportionate assets, he said, it was done on the basis of a 2021 written statement filed by the accused who had contended that the previous investigating officer had failed to take many crucial financial transactions into account.
When the judge wanted to know whether Mr. Boominathan had ever in any other case taken up further investigation on the basis of the averments in the written statement filed by the accused, the IO replied that he did so in the case related to the Minister only on the basis of legal advice.
The questions were posed during the hearing of a suo motu revision taken up by the High Court against an order passed by the Virdhunagar Principal Sessions Court on December 12, 2022 discharging Mr. Thennarasu and his wife T. Manimegalai from the disproportionate assets case booked in 2012.
The first investigating officer S. Swaminathan had examined 93 witnesses, collected 101 documents and filed a charge sheet on November 15, 2012. In 2016, the accused filed discharge petitions and the then IO Bhoominathan filed a counter contending that the grounds of discharge were baseless and frivolous.
However, on September 5, 2021, the same IO filed a petition to conduct further investigation in the case on the ground that the written statement filed by the accused had introduced some new facts and documents, obtained the trial court’s permission and filed a closure report on August 28, 2022.
The Principal Sessions Court accepted the closure report and discharged the accused leading to the suo motu revision taken up on August 23, 2023. After hearing senior counsel Ranjit Kumar and A. Ramesh for the Minister and his wife, the judge decided to hear Advocate General P.S. Raman for the prosecution on March 8.