The Madras High Court has restrained the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) from taking any coercive action against Indian Forest Service officer K. Rajangam and two other forest officials pursuant to a case booked against them for having allegedly swindled ₹1.69 crore of public money allotted for laying roads in forests.
Justice G. Chandrasekharan passed the interim order on the petitions filed by the trio to get the First Information Report (FIR) quashed. Though the case was booked against four officials — Rajangam, V.A. Saravanan, R. Murugesan and G. Baskar — only the first three accused have approached the court so far with a plea to quash the FIR.
Since certain personal allegations of abuse of authority had been levelled against DVAC Deputy Superintendent of Police V. Krishnaraj, who was impleaded by name in Rajangam’s petition, the judge granted time till April 5 for the DSP to file his counter-affidavit and directed the investigating agency not to take any coercive action till then.
