A public interest litigation petition has been filed in the Madras High Court seeking a CBI probe into TVK MLA N. Elayaraja, representing Uthangarai constituency, having been reportedly offered a bribe of ₹35 crore to vote in favour of a proposed resolution against Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly Speaker J.C.D. Prabhakar.
The plea has been listed for hearing before the first Division Bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G. Arul Murugan on Thursday (July 16, 2026). Advocate J. Balasubramani of Tiruppur had filed the case claiming to be not affiliated to any political party but only interested in a fair and impartial investigation.
The petitioner brought it to the notice of the court that the TVK MLA had lodged a complaint with the Greater Chennai police on June 29, 2026 accusing four indivdiuals of having offered him the bribe of ₹35 crore. Accordingly, the Triplicane police had booked a FIR on June 30, 2026 and begun a probe into the matter.
Citing the TVK MLA was allegedly threatened by one of the accused on phone on June 26, 2026, the PIL petitioner said, the delay in lodging the complaint and the registration of the FIR at the instance of an Additional Commissioner of Police raise reasonable suspicion of the FIR having been “orchestrated.”
He also claimed the FIR appeared to have been registered due to political considerations and said, even otherwise, the FIR ought to have been registered at Uthangarai police station in Krishnagiri district and not at the Triplicane police station just because the MLAs’ hostel was located within the latter’s jurisdiction.
“The deliberate bypassing of the jurisdictionally proximate police station at Uthangarai, and the registration of the FIR at D1 Triplicane Police Station, hundreds of kilometres away, is a clear instance of forum selection driven not by legal jurisdiction but by political convenience and proximity to the seats of power,” his affidavit read.
Further, referring to a spate of resignations by MLAs who had been elected in AIADMK tickets and complaints by a few DMK MLAs that they too had been offered money to resign their posts, the petitioner said, all these instances too reinforce the need for an investigation by a central agency into the issue.
The petitioner insisted the case being probed by the Triplicane police must be transferred to the CBI for conducting a fresh and comprehensive investigation not only on the basis of the TVK MLA’s complaint but also on all other complaints related to the ruling party having indulged in horse trading to remain in power.
