Madras High Court sets aside former minister Selvaganapathy's conviction by special CBI court

Chennai: The Madras High Court on Tuesday set aside an order of a trial court, convicting and sentencing former AIADMK Minister T M Selvaganapathy to two years Rigorous Imprisonment in a cremation shed scam case.

Allowing an appeal filed by Selvaganapathy, Justice G Jayachandran set aside the order of the Special Court for CBI Cases, passed in 2014, convicting and sentencing the former Minister to two years RI.

Selvaganapathy was a Minister during the AIADMK regime (1991-96) when late J Jayalalithaa was the Chief Minister. He had later joined the DMK. In 2014, when he was a DMK Rajya Sabha MP, he was convicted in the cremation shed scam by the special court and he lost his membership of the upper house.

The judge also acquitted the then officials Bharathi, Krishnamoorthy and Sathyamoorthy, who were originally awarded 2 years RI by the Special court in the case while allowing the appeals filed by them.

The prosecution had alleged a scam to the tune of about Rs 23 lakh in the construction of cremation sheds.