Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay and ministers Aadhav Arjuna and CTR Nirmal Kumar should furnish proof to prove their allegation that the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) had tried to cover up the Veeramani POCSO case when it was in power, the party told the Madras High Court on Wednesday.
GEM Granites founder R Veeramani is currently in custody in a case under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO Act) over alleged sexual abuse of a minor.
In the petition before the High Court, the DMK said that Vijay, Arjuna and Nirmal Kumar made public statements accusing the DMK of concealing the matter. The leaders also claimed that material evidence exists to support their assertions, as per the party.
Considering these claims, the party has moved the High Court seeking a direction to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the case to act on a September 27 representation by DMK Treasurer and Member of Parliament TR Baalu for examination of these three leaders.
The matter was listed before Justice V Lakshminarayanan on Wednesday.
Senior Advocate J Ravindran, appearing for the DMK, submitted that if the three leaders possess evidence showing a cover-up, they should hand it over to the police.
The Court, however, observed that the recently-constituted SIT should be allowed to conduct its investigation in peace and adjourned the matter by four weeks.
No direction was issued at this stage requiring Vijay or the two ministers to appear before the SIT.
The DMK has formally sought a writ of mandamus directing the SIT to consider and take action on Baalu's representation within a time frame fixed by the High Court.
The representation seeks an inquiry into the source of the information on which Vijay and other leaders' statements were based and whether they had access to any investigation-related material that was not legitimately available to them.
According to the affidavit, if Vijay and the two ministers possess documents, electronic material, communications or other evidence concerning the case, the same should be immediately secured and examined by the investigating agency.
The DMK has argued that if their statements were not supported by any material, it needs to be examined how they made the claim of coverup.