Chennai: A month after former AIADMK minister R Vaithilingam joined the DMK, the outgoing DMK government led by Chief Minister MK Stalin on February 25 closed a corruption case against him where he was alleged to have taken a Rs 27.9 crore bribe to facilitate planning permissions for real estate major, official documents show.
Sources said that the investigating officer ME Ramachandramoorthy, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), appeared before the Sessions court on June 4 and reconfirmed the submission of the closure report.
An MLA from Orathanadu constituency in Thanjavur district, Vaithilingam won his election in the 2026 elections fighting on a DMK ticket.
He was the housing and Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) minister in the 2011-16 AIADMK regime, during which he was alleged to have taken the bribe from Shriram Properties and Infrastructure Private Ltd (now Gateway Office Parks).
DVAC had registered the case against Vaithilingam, his sons and officials of the private firm in September 2024 based on a complaint given by NGO Arappor Iyakkam.
He joined the DMK in the presence of Stalin and other senior leaders on January 21, 2026.
The DVAC’s action was based on orders issued by the then chief secretary to the Tamil Nadu government issued on February 19, 2026 after three months of internal deliberation. The model code of conduct (MCC) for the TN assembly elections came into force on March 15.
Activist Jayaram Venkatesan of Arappor Iyakkam, which had filed the original complaint to DVAC against Vaithilingam, said that this was a direct indication of quid-pro-quo by DMK President and then Chief Minister MK Stalin. “DMK used the FIR to bring Vaithilingam into the party and then closed the case. The buck stops with Stalin,” he said.
DMK spokesperson RS Bharati said that he was not aware of the details of the case, but asserted that there was nothing political in it. “It has nothing to do with politics,” he said. DVAC officials declined to comment.
The allegation was that in February 2016, Shriram Properties and Infrastructure Pvt Ltd routed the bribe to Muthammal Estates Pvt Ltd, a shell company run by Vaithilingam’s sons Prabu and Shanmugaprabu, in lieu of planning permission given to the conglomerate for construction of 1453 residential and IT buildings on a 57.94 acre plot in Perungalathur near Chennai. The bribes were routed through Bharat Coal Chemicals Ltd (BCCL), which the DVAC said is a group company of Shriram Properties.
In its closure report filed before a Sessions court in Chennai, DVAC said that they could not establish any conclusive or corroborative evidence to substantiate allegations of illegal gratification or personal gain by Vaithilingam or any other public servant involved in the planning permission process.
The closure report accepts that Muthammal Estates received Rs 27.9 crore from BCCL, but states that it was for the procurement of 24.96 acres of land in Thiruvallur district to salvage a long-standing ammonia project. DVAC cites an unregistered agreement executed between BCCL and Muthammal for this. They also cite an additional Rs 2.1 crore given to Pannerselvam, Vaithilingam’s brother-in-law, for the same reason.
The DVAC’s closure report said that their investigation could not establish any direct financial or operational link between the accused Shriram group companies and BCCL. There was no evidence of fund flow either directly or through intermediary entities and that they could not identify any business transaction or commercial relationship between the Shriram group companies and BCCL.
“The DVAC’s contentions are questionable. BCCL is a part of the Shriram group,”alleged Jayaram Venkatesan. He also questioned if the closure report had the sanction of the new Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) government.
