A district sessions court in Thoothukudi has acquitted former Tamil Nadu housing minister Anitha R. Radhakrishnan and six members of his family in a disproportionate-assets case involving an alleged accumulation of assets worth ₹4.90 crore, Dinamalar reported, in a verdict also reported by NationPress on Tuesday.

Source: Dinamalar via UrbanAcres

Radhakrishnan was the principal accused in the case. The six family members cleared along with him are his wife Jayakanthi, his sons Anantha Padmanabhan, Anantha Ramakrishnan and Anantha Maheswaran, and his brothers Shanmuganandam and Sivanandhan.

₹4.90 croreAlleged disproportionate assets
7Accused acquitted
2006Year the case was registered
2001–2006Period the allegations cover

A case that began in 2006

The case was registered by the Thoothukudi unit of the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) in 2006, after a DMK government took office in the state. The allegations relate to the period from 2001 to 2006, when Radhakrishnan served as housing minister in the AIADMK government, and accused him of accumulating assets valued at ₹4.90 crore beyond his known sources of income.

The court delivered its verdict after the examination and cross-examination of witnesses had been completed, and cleared all seven accused. The order concludes the trial at the district court level.

What is not yet known

Reports of the verdict do not set out the detailed reasons recorded in the judgment, and there is no word yet on whether the prosecution will challenge the acquittal in a higher court. Any appeal would be a decision for the prosecuting authorities.

Radhakrishnan, who represented the Tiruchendur constituency as an MLA from 2001 to 2006, is now a DMK legislator. The allegations against him and his family were allegations throughout the trial; the sessions court's acquittal is the verdict on them at the trial-court stage.