: The Election Commission of India on Wednesday informed the Madras High Court that it has directed the Chief Electoral Officer of Tamil Nadu to file a fresh complaint against those accused of bribery in the RK Nagar bypoll.
The EC's reply was in resposnse to the November 15 order, directing it to file a reply by December 18 on a plea by defeated DMK candidate Maruthu Ganesh, seeking access to some documents submitted to the court in a sealed cover.
When the matter came up today before Justices M Sathyanarayanan and R Hemalatha Niranjan Rajagopalan, counsel for the Election Commission produced a communication dated December 16, stating that the Commission in its October 21 letter, had directed the CEO, Tamil Nadu to take necessary steps to file fresh complaints or FIR against those involved in these cases on the charges of bribery and corruption.
The CEO had sought some clarifications on the matter and the EC in two letters in November and December, had sought certain clarifications from Central Board of Direct Taxes for intimating the current status of assessment on bribing of voters and other unaccounted expenses, which is awaited.
Recording the submissions, the bench posted the matter to January 23