TNAU VC raided over purchase malpractice

May 10, 2012 |

chennai

Tags:

corruption

Directorate of vigilance and anti-corruption (DVAC) sleuths raided Wednesday the office and residence of Murugesa Boopathi, vice-chancellor of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU),
Coimbatore, in connection with malpractices in the purchase of equipment for harvesting sugarcane.

The raids were conducted at eight places — seven in Coimbatore and one in Chennai. The raids followed complaints of irregularities in the purchase of four sugarcane harvesters worth about `6 crore and other equipment, a DVAC release said.

The directorate said the office of the university registrar, a research centre, offices of the dean, residence of a professor and the office and residence of K.R. Anantha Sainam alias L.C.T. Babu, proprietor of supplier ElSeeTee Machineries India, Coimbatore, were also raided.

DVAC said the vice-chancellor had seen a demonstration and knew the harvesters, each priced at around Rs 1.41 crore, were defective but the university still went ahead and bought the machines.

Mr Boopathi, DVAC said, not only placed the first purchase order but also went for repeat purchase without waiting for a nod from the university board.

He allegedly told the university the purchases had been approved by the board.

DVAC claimed ElSeeTee supplied the same machines to a few private companies around the same time at Rs 71 lakh each, half the price at which it supplied to TNAU.

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