On March 30, days after the COVID-19 nationwide lockdown began, Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam was on duty, visiting the sprawling 295-acre market complex in Koyambedu to check the arrangements made to contain the spread of the virus inside the complex. A month later, as Koyambedu has turned into a COVID-19 hotspot, the vehicle—Range Rover with registration number TN 05 CE 2345—in which Panneerselvam, or OPS as he is popularly known, drove into the market, seems to have put him in a spot of bother.
It is a 2019 model Range Rover Sport, registered in the name of a company called Vijayanth Developers Private Ltd, owned by his children. His son, Lok Sabha MP O.P. Raveendranath Kumar, popularly known as OPR, younger son V.P. Jayapradeep and daughter Kavitha Bhanu are the directors of the company.
According to the documents available with THE WEEK, the Range Rover Sport 3.0L TDV6 diesel, SE 5-seater model was purchased on February 1, 2019, through a loan from a private bank in Chennai. Vijayanth Developers Private Ltd, according to the documents available with Registrar of Companies (RoC), was incorporated on November 21, 2008. The company is into complete construction or parts thereof, according to the nature of business column in the RoC.
In December 2017, THE WEEK was the first to expose the various business interests of OPS and his sons in a detailed article.
The documents with the RoC show that OPR and Jayapradeep, however, had quit from the posts of director from most of the companies except three—Vijayanth Developers Pvt Ltd, Willownet Exim Pvt Ltd and Vijayanth Cosmic Powers Pvt Ltd. (Incidentally, Vijayanth Cosmic Powers Pvt Ltd was launched on March 19, 2020, just days before the COVID-19 lockdown began.)
Interestingly, Vijayanth Developers Pvt Ltd, established in 2008, has bagged a major business in Tirupur district. According to the documents accessed from Tamil Nadu Real Estate Regulatory Authority (TNRERA) by THE WEEK, the company, on January 20, 2020, got approval for a real estate project. As per the details furnished under the heading ‘Approval details’ by TNRERA, Vijayanth Developers Pvt Ltd has been approved to carry out a construction project across 9.02 acres. The company has been allotted 117 plots—a layout of house sites with 76 regular plots and 41 EWS plots—by the Directorate of Town and Country Planning (DTCP). The plots are located at Rakkiapalayam, Thirumurganpoondi in Tirupur.
Incidentally, DTCP, which is the sole authority to give approvals for unapproved plots and layouts in Tamil Nadu except Chennai, is one of the portfolios held by OPS himself. With OPS being the minister, and the real estate company run by his children being allotted the land for the construction project, allegations of conflict of interest are being raised.
Apparently, the application for grant of the 9.02-acre land for developing a housing colony was submitted to TNRERA on December 12, 2019. The application, signed by Jayapradeep, further says that the company maintains an account with City Union bank, Mandaveli branch, exclusively to carry out the project. “Vijayanth Developers Pvt Ltd has agreed to deposit 70 per cent of the amount collected from the allottees and from time to time will be deposited to the account,” reads the letter to TNRERA, from Jayapradeep. According to real estate developers in Tirupur, the project cost may run close to Rs 500 crore.
Now, according to the affidavit submitted with the Election Commission of India, before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, OPR (OPS's son) has said that he has only Rs 33,340 worth equity shares in Vijayanth Developers Pvt Ltd. Also, that the company owes Rs 36.52 lakh to him as loan. The affidavit also says that he has loans to be repaid—Rs 33 lakh to his brother Jayapradeep, Rs 83 lakh to his sister Kavitha Bhanu, Rs 4.92 lakh to Global Home Reality, Rs 43.26 lakh to Jayam Vijayam Enterprises and Rs 1.41 crore as a term loan which he had taken from City Union bank, Mandaveli branch, and a car loan taken from HDFC bank to the tune of Rs 21.63 lakh.
On the other hand, the address of residence of OPR mentioned in the papers submitted to TNRERA raises more uneasy questions. While OPR’s sister Kavitha Bhanu and brother Jayapradeep, who are also directors of the company, have given different addresses, OPR’s address is 147, Thenpennai, Greenways Road, R.A. Puram, Chennai. This is the official residence address of Panneerselvam, the deputy chief minister. The address cannot be used by anyone residing there to run a business. Interestingly, OPR, in his election affidavit, also submitted that he has not been staying in any of the official government residences for the past 10 years. In such a scenario, the address of the official residence of the deputy chief minister being used by his son as the address for a company in which he is a director, raises questions of ethics.
Coming back to the Ranger Rover, it is not OPS's official vehicle. The state had given him an Innova Crysta (registration number TN 06 BG 2345), bought for Rs 19.46 lakh, after he took over as the deputy chief minister in 2017. According to an RTI reply by the Tamil Nadu government, OPS had an Innova (registration number TN 05 BG 2345) given by the state government when he was the chief minister in 2016-17. Once Edappadi K. Palaniswami took over as the chief minister in 2017, OPS, the deputy chief minister, was given the new Innova Crysta upon the latter's request, as per the RTI reply.