Madras HC calls for order closing corruption case against former Minister C. Vijayabaskar, educationist Ishari K. Ganesh
The Madras High Court has granted a final opportunity till July 13, 2026, for educationist, film producer and actor Ishari K. Ganesh to produce an
The Madras High Court has granted a final opportunity till July 13, 2026, for educationist, film producer and actor Ishari K. Ganesh to produce an order passed either by the State government or the Vigilance Commission in 2024 accepting the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC)’s decision to close a corruption case registered against him and former AIADMK Minister C. Vijayabaskar (now in TVK) in 2022. First Division Bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G. Arul Murugan made it clear that Mr. Ganesh should produce within a week either the executive order accepting DVAC’s closure report or a judicial order quashing the 2022 First Information Report (FIR) registered against him, failing which his present plea to quash an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) shall be dismissed. P. Sidharthan, Special Public Prosecutor for the Directorate of Enforcement (ED), brought it to the notice of the court that the DVAC had registered the FIR against Mr. Vijayabaskar, Mr. Ganesh, the Dean of Vels Medical College and Hospital in Tiruvallur district, K. Srinivasaraja and four government doctors, R. Balajinathan, T.M. Manohar, J.
Sujatha and J.A. Vasanthakumar on September 12, 2022. The FIR was booked suo motu on the basis of intelligence collected by DVAC that Mr. Ganesh of Vels Institute of Science, Technology and Advanced Studies (VISTAS), a deemed to be university, had in 2020 allegedly bribed the then Health Minister Mr. Vijayabaskar to obtain ‘essentiality certificate’ for the newly constructed Vels Medical College so that it could begin admitting 150 students in MBBS course. As per the Minimum Requirements for Annual M.B.B.S Admissions Regulations, 2020, the ‘essentiality certificate’ could be issued only if a private hospital had been in existence for a minimum of two years and was capable of being developed into a teaching hospital with a fully functional capacity of 300 beds. However, Vels Medical College was issued an ‘essentiality certificate’ even when its buildings were under construction, the FIR read. It also accused Mr. Vijayabaskar of having induced the inspection team, comprising four doctors from the Government Mohan Kumaramangalam Medical College Hospital, to submit a false report. “The field verification report of the Assistant Director of Town and Country Planning, Tiruvallur dated June 11, 2020 for building approval clearly proves that the buildings were under construction during the said period,” the FIR added.
The BriefWire