CHENNAI, May 7: The CBI has filed nine more cases in the Madras High Court on the cremation sheds scam in parts of Tamil Nadu, where amounts allocated by the Centre under the Jawahar Rozgar Yojana (JRY) were said to have been misused during the AIADMK regime.

Sources told The Indian Express that in addition to the case already filed in the Madurai special court, three more cases were registered by the CBI on May 1 in respect of implementation of the scheme in the districts of Pudukottai, Tiruchi and Chengalpattu.

Another six were filed here on May 2 relating to the scheme in the districts of Salem, Dindugul, Periyar, Nagapattinam, South Arcot Vallalar and Ramanathapuram districts.

These cases were registered to probe into implementation of the scheme to construct sheds for cremation grounds for the Adidravidar community in rural areas. Though the project had been funded by the Centre to use locals in execution of the scheme, with the help of locally available resources, it had been found that funds had been allocated to others in Madurai -- some societies which, according to the charge made out by the CBI, was not in accordance with the spirit of the programme.

Besides, the full amounts drawn had not been been utilised for the purpose, and a case was registered in Madurai on sanctioning of payments in excess of work carried out, according to the case filed by the CBI, the sources said. The CBI had initially restricted the investigation to the Madurai segment alone, under which a charge-sheet was filed against the then Local Administration Minister T M Selvaganapathy, the then district collector R Sampath, among others.

The Madras High Court on a petition that the investigation should not be limited to Madurai district, and that it should be extended to other districts, had recently asked the CBI to look into the manner in which the scheme had been effected in other districts of the state. Accordingly, the CBI has now proceeded on these lines.

With the filing of the nine cases, CBI teams would soon fan out to the districts and commence their probe into the scheme as it stood in the concerned districts.

CBI sleuths are expected to visit the collectorates of the concerned districts, and find out if there were irregularities there, too. Its report would later be submitted to the High Court for further orders.

In some districts, work orders were commenced even prior to the government order being issued, according to CBI reports. In a few places, very few sheds were constructed, and the probe might not yield dividends in such districts.

The CBI probe would go into the extent to which the scheme was implemented in accordance with JRY guidelines, whether excess amounts had been paid for carrying out the works, and whether the scheme reached the intended beneficiaries, and also whether there was interference from the minister and concerned secretaries, sources said.

Bare facts

Under the JRY scheme, the following amounts were sanctioned for the 9 districts where the probe is to commence shortly, with the figures of number of cremation sheds to be put up, in brackets:

Pudukottai -- Rs 53.93 lakhs (190 sheds); Tiruchi -- Rs 133.11 lakhs (489); Chengalpattu -- Rs 149.70 lakhs (539); Salem -- Rs 50.10 lakhs (167); Dindugul -- Rs 29.40 lakhs ( 98); Periyar -- Rs 84.00 lakhs (280); Nagapattinam- Rs 37.50 lakhs ( 96); S.Arcot Vallalar 67.50 lakhs (225); Ramanathapuram 16.20 lakhs ( 54).

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