Chennai: A retired Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) engineer has approached the Madras high court to constitute a special investigation team to probe the alleged Rs 1 lakh crore scam in the board.When the PIL filed by C. Selvaraj came up for hearing before a division bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M.M. Sundresh, advocate general A.L. Somayaji sought time to place on record the stand of the government. Accepting his request, the bench posted to February 26 further hearing of the case.

The PIL also seeks a direction to the state government to revoke the licence granted to Tangedco and appoint an administrator to manage its affairs. The petition seeks an SIT probe into the systematic and scientific plunder of the state exchequer of Rs1 lakh crore through TNEB, by a coterie headed by the then chairman of TNEB, from 2001 to 2014 (with a minor interregnum in 2004).

This misappropriation was the outcome of an unchallenged conspiracy by nine modes of operating which included ensuring artificial power shortage throughout the state by non-implementation of Electricity Act, 2003, preventing new projects from taking off, or delaying them indefinitely to maintain the shortage, stalling generation in existing units with flimsy excuses for several months,
purchasing power from private players at exorbitant rates, and doling out several thousand crore rupees from the exchequer’s coffer to the private sector, and without regulatory approvals,
fudging accounts that even the regulators or the auditors including CAG do not have access to the accounts, and criminal nexus with contractors including PSUs such as BHEL to facilitate bribes in award of contracts and also to ensure delay of upcoming projects, Selvaraj alleged.