In a big relief to former ADMK Minister SP Velumani, a graft case that was filed against him has been withdrawn. The case was filed by DMK's Appavu and the latter had withdrawn his plea by citing that he has become the Speaker of the Tamil Nadu Assembly. Appavu has been elected to the assembly as a DMK MLA and as a long-time legislator, he was elected as the House Speaker. 

According to reports, Appavu has filed a petition against SP Velumani when the latter was serving as the Municipal Administration Minister in the previous ADMK regime. Appavu has filed a graft case against Velumani in connection with the purchase of Rs 23.7 lakh street lights in village panchayats. 

According to Appavu, LED lights worth Rs 450 in the open market were purchased at an exorbitant cost of Rs 3,737, and lights worth Rs 1,550 were purchased for Rs 14,919 each. Appavu claimed that from 2015 to 2018, Rs 969 crore was allotted for this purpose in three phases, and of Rs 969 crore, at least Rs 400 crore was apportioned from the funds received from the 14th Finance Commission, Rs 300 crore from the State Finance Commission, and Rs 200 crore capital grant fund for rural local bodies fund. 

Appavu has said that as per the panchayat raj system, funds allotted from the Union Finance Commission could be utilized only by the elected village panchayat presidents. The DMK leader has alleged that Velumani had abducted the powers of the panchayat presidents by constituting the committee and managed to allot the tenders to his close circle, benamis, and shell companies. 

In his petition, Appavu has said that the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) didn't act on his complaint post which he had moved to the High Court against the minister. The reports say that the case was under hearing for the past few years and when the hearing came to the court's bench on Monday, Appavu said that he is withdrawing the case against the former minister by stating that he has now become Speaker of Tamil Nadu Assembly. 

When the plea had come up for hearing in the Madras High Court on Monday, Appavu's counsel had submitted that he has filed the petition in his personal capacity and that now he is willing to withdraw it, as he is now the Speaker of the Assembly. After recording the submission, the bench consisted of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy had given the consent to Appavu to withdraw his petition.