Durai Murugan to stand trial again in DA case; Ponmudy to face action for controversial remarks

Chennai: Two senior ministers in Chief Minister M K Stalin-led dispensation – Durai Murugan and K Ponmudy – got adverse orders from the Madras High Court on Wednesday, in a series of embarrassments to the DMK government from the judiciary.

While Justice P Velmurugan reversed a 2007 order of a Vellore court discharging Durai Murugan, also the DMK’s general secretary, from a disproportionate assets (DA) case and asked him to stand trial once again, Justice N Anand Venkatesh order a suo motu case against Ponmudy for his disparaging remarks against Saivites, Vaishnavites, and women.

The day also saw the state government being reprimanded by a division bench of the Madras High Court for seeking to declare as illegal the raids by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) at the premises of state-run liquor retailer Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (TASMAC).

Justice Velmurugan ordered that the trial against Durai Murugan and family members, including his MP-son Kathir Anand, wife D Santhakumari and brother Durai Singaram, should be completed in six months. Durai Murugan is the fourth DMK minister after Ponmudy, Thangam Thennarasu, and K K S S R Ramachandran to be ordered to stand trial once again in DA cases by the Madras High Court in the past two years.

Durai Murugan, placed number two in the pecking order of the DMK and the Tamil Nadu government, was discharged from the DA case in 2007 when the party-led government was in power. The check period for the case is between 1996 and 2001 he when was the powerful Public Works Department (PWD) minister.

The Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) had in 2013 under the AIADMK rule challenged the 2007 verdict. While taking up sumo motu cases against Thenarasu and Ponmudy, justice Anand Venkatesh had come down heavily on the lower judiciary and the DVAC for changing its stance after a change of government in the state.

In his order on Wednesday, Justice Venkatesh issued the direction to act against Ponmudy while observing that the Minister had misused the liberty granted to him by the Supreme Court, which had stayed his conviction as well as sentence in a corruption case in March 2024.

“He owes his position as a Minister and enjoys the liberty by virtue of interim orders passed by the Supreme Court but has misused the liberty by making this highly derogatory speech,” justice Venkatesh added.

Last week, the judge had directed the Tamil Nadu police to file a case against Ponmudy, the Forest Minister, for his controversial remarks against Saivites, Vaishnavites, and women or else face contempt of court.

In his speech at an event on April 6, Ponmudy made disparaging remarks against women and compared Hindu Shaivite and Vaishnavite religious symbols to sexual positions. Following his remarks, Ponmudy was sacked as deputy general secretary of the DMK by Chief Minister M K Stalin but he continues to remain as the Forest Minister.