Madras HC closes Rs 4 crore cheating plea against ex-AIADMK minister Vijayabaskar

The Madras High Court, on Thursday, October 1, closed a petition seeking registration of an FIR against former All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) minister C Vijayabaskar over an alleged Rs 4 crore cheating complaint. The complainant, Dhana Vimal, was the AIADMK candidate for the 2026 Assembly elections from Alangudi in Pudukkottai district.

Justice V Lakshminarayanan passed the order after Additional Public Prosecutor (APP) Arun Anbumani told the court that a preliminary inquiry conducted by a Deputy Superintendent of Police attached to the Pudukkottai district police had found no substance warranting registration of an FIR. 

According to The Hindu, the court also granted liberty to the complainant to pursue other legal remedies, including filing a private complaint before the appropriate court.

Dhana Vimal had approached the High Court seeking an FIR against Vijayabaskar, who has since joined the ruling Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), alleging that the former minister had cheated him of Rs 4 crore.

According to the complaint, Vimal had expressed his willingness to contest the Assembly election as an AIADMK candidate from Alangudi. Vijayabaskar allegedly contacted him on November 11, 2025, and asked him to arrange Rs 5 crore to demonstrate his ability to meet election expenses if he was declared the party's candidate.

The complainant said that he managed to mobilise Rs 4.5 crore from various sources and, at Vijayabaskar's direction, handed the money over to a contractor, Sothuppalai Murugesan.

Vimal alleged that after his name was announced as the candidate, he sought the return of the money so that he could use it for election expenses. According to the complaint, only Rs 50 lakh was returned, while the remaining Rs 4 crore was allegedly withheld.

The complainant further alleged that Vijayabaskar subsequently joined TVK and that he was threatened when he demanded the return of the money. He also said that despite submitting a complaint to the Pudukkottai district Superintendent of Police, no action was taken.

However, the police inquiry did not find sufficient material to register an FIR. According to reports, APP Arun Anbumani told the court that the complainant was unable to establish the sources from which he had allegedly mobilised Rs 4.5 crore.

“He had brought so many people, including his employees and farm workers, to claim that he had borrowed money from them but the inquiry revealed that those people had no source to be able to lend lakhs of rupees to the complainant,” Anbumani submitted before the court.

According to Times of India, the APP told the court that the police had found there was no prima facie material in the complaint. 

After recording the submissions, Justice Lakshminarayanan closed the petition, while granting Vimal the liberty to pursue other remedies available under law, including approaching the jurisdictional court with a private complaint.