NLC chairman suspended following CBI case

The CBI had raided the houses of Bhoopathy and his relatives in Chennai, Tiruchi, Neyveli and Kumbakonam, when documents of properties, jewels and investments in shares worth Rs 41 lakh were found. The Ministry had kept the suspension issue pending till the final report.

The CBI made out a case of forgery against him when Bhoopathy, to prove the source of income in defence of his assets case, allegedly produced fabricated documents on stamp papers. CBI sources said that these reflected setting up of a corpus fund which came from gifts during the naming ceremony of his children way back in 1969 and 1970. The CBI does not require any sanction to launch proceedings in the forgery case, since he had fabricated his personal documents and not documents belonging to the Government.

Meanwhile, the NLC Board has raised objections to the extension given to T S Panchapakesan, retired IG of Police, Tamil Nadu, by the NLC, who have employed him as Advisor to the CMD. Panchapakesan got his seventh six-month extension recently.

The Ministry has been appraised of the extensions. Normally, the NLC has only technical advisors. The advisors are given a consolidated grant of Rs 5000 or Rs 10,000 per month apart from TA/DA. However, several cars, including one in his agricultural farm in Thanjavur, have been placed at the disposal of the advisor to the CMD, who is functioning despite the NLC having a full-fledged Executive Director (Vigilance) P Rajendran, it is alleged.