Madras, October 12: Near four months after the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) levelled corruption charges against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister E Palaniswami, the Madras High Court has ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to conduct a probe into the matter. This comes after the DMK had written to the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) alleging that CM has allocated various multi-crore road development projects to his relatives. Tamil Nadu CM K Palaniswami Rules Out Resignation of Ministers Facing Graft Charges.

DMK also accused Palaniswami of awarding Tirunelveli-Sengottai-Kollam highway on SH 39 to Vebjatachalapathy constructions, which is owned by the father-in-law of Palaniswami's son Mithun. After the DMK was not satisfied with DVAC's response, they moved to the Madras High Court slamming "the lackadaisical approach" in conducting the probe.

On Friday, the transferring of the case to CBI was ordered by Justice Jagdish Chandra after pursuing the report by DVAC. After investigating the report, the court said it was not satisfied with the action taken by the DVAC. Justice Chandra directed DVAC to hand over all the investigation report and documents to the CBI within a week's time.

In the report against Palaniswami, the Opposition listed out various irregularities in major projects such as Oddanchatram- Dharapuram- Avinashipalayam state highway, the four-lane of Madurai Ring Road,  Tirunelveli-Sengottai-Kollam state highway and all the maintenance work in state highways in Thiruvallur, Ramanathapuram, Virudhunagar and Krishnagiri districts.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 12, 2018 11:27 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).