When the news comes that a corrupt lawmaker is facing a criminal case, he or she will likely be happy to see the media, too.
That’s the message that the country’s leading online news platform, Inso, has been sending for the past few weeks.
The website has been highlighting the cases of politicians, both in the country and abroad, in a series called ‘Criminal Justice’, which is designed to help people who want to file lawsuits against corrupt officials and officials in their respective countries.
The first case highlighted by Inso was that of the former Supreme Court Judge M.N. Anandakumar, who was convicted on criminal charges for allegedly using funds of a public-private partnership to buy properties in the coastal city of Coimbatore in 2014.
According to a case filed by the State Public Prosecutor’s Office in 2014, the property deals, which included a swimming pool and a casino, were approved under the supervision of the public-interest department of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCEI), which was headed by Anandukumar’s son.
However, Anandankumar’s case was not the only case where a politician allegedly benefitted from the public sector deals.
An Indian Express report from November 2014 quoted the public prosecutor in the case as saying that there were many similar cases in the state, as well as in neighboring Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
Inso’s ‘Criminals Justice’ series highlights some of the most egregious examples of corruption that have taken place in the Indian state in the past decade, including the sale of power plant licenses to private companies.
In the wake of the Coimbetore case, a number of high-profile cases involving politicians, including former Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his son Arun, also sparked protests against the use of public money in government and business deals.
But in recent weeks, Insecurities Minister and Congress leader Shashi Tharoor also started a campaign to highlight the misuse of public funds in the power sector, and the misuse by politicians of public trust funds, and has called on the Centre to take action.