HC seeks TN minister's reply to allegation of bribe demand

The Madras High Court today sought the reply of state Higher Education minister K P Anbalagan to a plea alleging that he demanded a bribe of Rs 13 crore from a contractor to give him a tender to construct polytechnics buildings.
On the plea by Krishnagiri-based building contractor V Vengan, the bench of Justice M Duraiswamy also sought the explanations of the Public Works Department's chief engineer, Higher Education Department's secretary and its commissioner.
The court issued them notices returnable in three weeks.
The officials, who were issued notices are the part of a committee entrusted with the task of awarding the contracts.

The petitioner submitted that the PWD chief engineer of Technical Education Circle at Guindy here had issued a tender notice on May 8 last, inviting bids for constructing new government polytechnic colleges at Madurai, Theni, Pudukottai, Villupuram, Vellore, Krishnagiri, Tiruchirappalli and Erode districts.
While the last date for submission of the bids was June 9 with the tenders slated to be opened that very day, the chief engineer did not open them, he alleged.

The only pre-qualification bid was opened on June 22 by the chief engineer and he (petitioner) was found to be qualified for the work, Vengan claimed adding the price bid was not opened.

The petitioner further alleged that as per the advice of the PWD chief engineer, he had gone to meet the minister, who demanded 20 per cent of the total value of the contract work as commission, to award it to him.
Stating that the minister had made an "illegal" demand for awarding the contract, the petitioner said he is not bound to pay any bribe.
The petitioner then pleaded with the court to direct the PWD chief engineer to open the price bid for work numbers: 4, 6 and 10 only after informing him about the date and time.
He also sought a direction to the committee to award the contract without consulting the minister.