Chennai, Sep 29 — The DMK has moved the Madras High Court seeking a direction to the Special Investigation Team probing the R. Veeramani alleged child sexual abuse case to examine whether Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay and two ministers have evidence to support their claims that the previous government shielded the accused.
In a petition filed through party treasurer T.R. Baalu, the DMK asked the court to direct the all-women SIT to act on its representation of September 27.
The representation sought the summoning of CM Vijay and ministers Aadhav Arjuna and C.T.R. Nirmal Kumar for questioning.
Veeramani, the founder of Gem Granites, is the prime accused in a case registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. The SIT was constituted specifically to investigate the case.
In an affidavit, Baalu said the Chief Minister and the two ministers had publicly accused the former DMK government of protecting Veeramani.
If they possessed information supporting those allegations, they had a duty to share it with investigators, he contended.
Baalu argued that anyone with relevant information in a POCSO case should place it before the investigating agency.
He claimed that withholding such information could amount to concealment of an offence. The SIT, he said, should summon the three leaders and collect any material in their possession that could assist its enquiry.
The petition asks the court to ensure that the SIT considers the DMK’s representation and determines whether the public statements were based on evidence available to those who made them.
It does not ask the court to decide the truth of the allegations against the previous government.
Baalu said a copy of the representation had also been sent to the Director General of Police and Head of Police Force.
The party had asked investigators to establish the source of the information behind the leaders’ remarks, he said.
The representation further questioned whether any of the three had obtained material relating to the investigation that should not legitimately have been available to them.
Baalu said those questions required examination by the SIT, rather than being left to public exchanges over the case.
The DMK’s plea places the political claims surrounding the investigation before the High Court while the SIT continues its probe into the allegations against Veeramani.
The petition seeks an enquiry into the leaders’ knowledge and any supporting material.