DMK seeks probe against former AIADMK ministers

The opposition DMK in Tamil Nadu sought an investigation into several leaders of the ruling AIADMK including former ministers, over reports that government officials had taken bribes to issue permits in 2014 for a campus that software company Cognizant Technology Solutions was building near Chennai.

DMK president MK Stalin, citing an ET report that said Cognizant had leaned towards a construction company to pay the bribe, on Monday demanded that the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) immediately begin investigations into the matter. In a news release, he said the role of some ministers during the 2012-2016 period such as former housing and urban development minister R Vaithilingam, power ministers Natham Viswanathan and P Thangamani, and four other AIADMK leaders who had been environment ministers — should be probed.

“Severe action should be taken against all those involved … the DVAC should seek the help of the CBI and Interpol to obtain evidences submitted in the American court, including video-conference records,” said Stalin. “It is a known secret that it is the ministers who order authorities to collect bribes,” he alleged.


Cognizant had withheld $17 million of payments to its construction company in 2014 to apply pressure and secure permissions from authorities in Tamil Nadu for the campus project, according to a US district court that indicted two senior American executives of the software firm for authorising payment of the bribes.

The construction firm, which Cognizant declined to name, then hired a third-party consultant to pay a bribe of around $2 million to government officials in Tamil Nadu, the court said in the indictment order. It agreed to reimburse the construction company by inflating invoices. The consultant was paid $500,000, it said. The AIADMK was in power in Tamil Nadu during the period when the alleged offences took place. It then retained power in 2016.

The bribery allegations have come up at a time when the state is on a drive to attract investments.