Madras HC pronounces senior TN Minister guilty in disproportionate assets case

Setting aside a trial court order acquitting senior DMK leader and Higher Education Minister K Ponmudy in a disproportionate assets case, the Madras High Court has ordered that the quantum of punishment will be passed on December 21. The case pertains to the minister and his family amassing Rs 1.79 crore disproportionate to his known sources of income when he was a minister in the previous DMK ministry between 2006 and 2011. The Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) has appealed against the trial court order.

Chennai:In a major setback to the ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu, the Madras High Court on Thursday convicted party veteran and Higher Education Minister K Ponmudy and his wife Visalatchi setting aside their acquittal by a trial court in 2017 in a disproportionate assets case. Justice G Jayachandran also directed the minister and his spouse to be present in the court either in person or through video conferencing on December 21 when the quantum punishment will be passed.

A senior party leader and a strongman of Villupuram district, Ponmudy (73), was a minister in the previous DMK ministries in 1989–1991 and 2006-2011 as well. The present case pertains to the minister possessing assets to the tune of Rs 1.79 crore not in proportion to his known sources of income when he was a minister for Higher Education and Mines in the then Karunanidhi government from 2006-2011. When the AIADMk returned to power in 2011, the DVAC registered a case and the Villupuram trial court acquitted him and his wife, citing lack of evidence in April 2016. The DVAC then moved to the High Court in 2017.

Earlier, during the hearing, the DVAC submitted that the agency had collected evidence from IT returns, bank accounts and details of properties besides examining 39 witnesses. Countering the prosecution, it was argued on the minister's behalf that the income of the wife had been wrongly accounted for and clubbed together. Ponmudy's wife had 110 acres of agricultural land and was engaged in business which the investigating agency had not considered. As such, there was no evidence to prove disproportionate assets, it was contended.

Allowing an appeal by the DVAC, challenging the Villupuram trial court order, Justice Jayachandran on Tuesday, pronounced the duo guilty. It has been proved that the minister had accumulated assets in the name of his wife, the judge held, rejecting the trial court finding that IT returns have failed to prove any wrongdoing.

Such an acquittal would set a bad precedent, the judge observed and said it had been established that 64% of assets were more than the known sources of income. The High Court has also taken suo motu revision of another case against Ponmudy in which another trial court in Vellore had acquitted the minister and his family members. It is about mining red sand over and above the licence in Villupuram district.