CHENNAI: DMK treasurer and Lok Sabha member T R Baalu has moved the Madras high court seeking a direction to the special investigation team (SIT), constituted to probe the child rape case involving granite baron R Veeramani and other ‘related matters’, to summon and question Tamil Nadu chief minister C Joseph Vijay and TVK ministers Aadhav Arjuna and C T R Nirmal Kumar over their allegations that DMK had protected the accused in the case.“The statements made by the three individuals without submitting the same to the SIT, are concealment of material evidence which is a criminal offence. The individuals having confronted the entire public by making such statements owe responsibility and duty to appear before the SIT and reveal all the evidence, leading to the alleged concealment of the issue by DMK,” Balu said on Tuesday.The chief minister and the ministers have not submitted any material proof before the SIT till date. That being so, the individuals having made such statements openly in public, it becomes the bounden duty of the SIT, to summon them and collect all the material evidence alleged by them against DMK in the alleged concealment of evidence in the ongoing Pocso case, he added.Pointing out that he made a representation in this regard to the SIT on Sept 27, Balu said, “My representation also raised the issue as to the source of the information forming the basis of the statements made by the persons and whether they had access to any investigation-related material which was not legitimately to be made available to them.”Conversely, if such statements were not supported by any material, the circumstances in which such statements came to be made also require examination in accordance with law, since it is made as a public statement, he said.He added that the plea was not founded merely upon the making of political statements or upon any political disagreement. The circumstances placed before the authorities concern the integrity of an ongoing criminal investigation and the identification, securing and examination of material which may have a bearing upon the investigation.
