Police danced to the tunes of party in power: Madras High Court while quashing corruption case against SP Velumani

While quashing one of the two First Information Reports (FIRs) registered against AIADMK leader SP Velumani, the Madras High Court on Wednesday said that it cannot allow political parties in power to witch hunt their political opponents. [Arappor Iyakkam v. The Director and others]. .A Bench of Justices PN Prakash and RMT Teeka Raman also said in its order,"There is a general perception that politicians are corrupt. To say that since there is a perception that all politicians are corrupt, SPV must also be presumed to be corrupt is a far-fetched thesis that simply does not appeal. We are afraid that an FIR against a politician, or for that matter against any citizen, cannot be registered on the basis of perceptions.".The Court further said that it was apparent that the Tamil Nadu Police had "danced to the tunes of the party in power" while pursuing the case. The High Court was referring to the fact that in 2019, it had appointed Superintendent of Police R Ponni to probe into the complaints and find out whether any cognisable offence was made out. The officer gave a clean chit to Velumani in December 2019, and in January 2020, the government in power accepted the preliminary inquiry. However, after a change of rule in Tamil Nadu, in May 2021, the Directorate of Vigilance & Anti-Corruption (DVAC) registered two FIRs against Velumani..In its judgment, the Court said that the NGO Arappor Iyakkam had done much research and shown that there were discrepancies in the method adopted by the Chennai and Coimbatore municipal bodies in awarding of tenders during Velumani's tenure as Minister of Municipal Administration. However, the same did not show that Velumani himself was responsible for the alleged irregularities.The Court went on to say that the complainant itself had said that the faulty tenders had been awarded by superintendent engineers and other civic officials. Further, there was nothing on record to show that Velumani had presided over the paperwork, or that he had personally scrutinised the bids..Looking at the larger perspective, the Court lamented the amount of judicial time that was being spent on such cases, as no political party is willing to insulate the police from executive interference."Before bringing the curtain down, we cannot but take this opportunity to observe that the scarce judicial time of Constitutional Courts are spent on public interest litigations against political functionaries alleging inaction or biased action by the police, in which process, the Courts are called upon to don the role of a Station House Officer, which we are constrained to do, in the larger public interest, for the simple reason that no political party is willing to implement the directions of the Supreme Court in Prakash Singh v Union of India in letter and spirit, to insulate the police from political and executive interference as the instant case demonstrates," the order stated. .The Bench, however, refused to quash the second FIR registered by the DVAC against Velumani on the charge of possessing assets disproportionate to his declared sources of income.The Court said that the suo motu FIR registered by the DVAC were based on the declaration of assets made by Velumani in his affidavits filed before the Election Commission of India, and it showed that he and his family had disproportionate assets worth over ₹58 crore..Senior Advocates SV Raju and Siddhartha Dave appeared for Velumani. Advocate General R Shunmugasundaram and State Public Prosecutor Hasan Mohammad Jinnah appeared for the State. Advocate Dr V Suresh appeared for the NGO Arappor Iyakkam..[Read judgment]