Chennai ,April 18( BPNS)
The Election Commission of India (ECI) infomed the Madras High Court that it would take further action onthe seizure of Rs 3.99 crore from three passengers of a train bound to Tirunelveli from Tambaram railway station in Chennai.
The ECI counsel Niranjan Rajagopalan informed the court that ECI would take action after the police completes its investigation and files a final report.
Chief Justice Sanjay V. Gangapurwala and Justice J. Sathya Narayana Prasad also recorded the submission of ECI counsel that as the money seized from Tambaram railway station on April 7, was very large, the Income Tax Department too had been intimated about it.
After recording the submission, the judges disposed of a writ petition filed by C.M. Raghavan, an independent candidate in the Tirunelveli Parliamentary constituency.
The petitioner had insisted that the money belonged to BJP candidate Nainar Nagendran and therefore, said that he must be disqualified.
The petitioner also sought the disqualification of thr Congress candidate Robert Bruce as an amount Rs 28.5 lakh had been seized from DMK’s Tirunelveli East district secretary’s office on April 4. The petitioner told the court that the money was meant to bribe voters and added that he had given a representation to the ECI to disqualfy the Congress canddiate who is an ally of the DMK.
The petitioner’s counsel A. Immanuel told the court that the election laws provide for disqualification of legislators who are elected through corrupt means and therefore, a direction must be issued to the ECI to take necessary action on the basis of the investigation into the seizures.
The counsel also told the court for fixing a time limit for the ECI to take action on the basis of the representation made by the writ petitioner.
However the Chief Justice said it might not be appropriate to fix a time limit since the ECI would have to wait for the completion of the police investigation.
