According to the charge-sheet filed in the case by the CB CID, Swamy is the first and Sundaram the second prosecution witnesses.

Originally, Swamy filed a private complaint under Section 200 CrPC in the court of the Principal Sessions Judge. He alleged that former Chief Minister J Jayalalitha, her erstwhile Cabinet colleague S Kannappan, former chief secretary T V Venkataraman and former TN Electricity Board chairman N Haribhaskar had conspired to acquire personal gain in the purchase of coal from foreign countries. With a criminal motive, they manipulated the tender and tampered with the files and thereby committed an offence of misconduct under the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA) and the IPC.

The complaint was forwarded to the DGP for investigation andthe CB CID took up the case and filed a charge-sheet on Jan 18, 1997 against the accused, which included former Finance Secretary N Narayanan, former Industries Secretary C Ramachandran, former finance minister V R Nedunchezhiyan and four others.

Radhakrishnan, however, discharged Jayalalitha and Nedunchezhian from the case and framed the charges against the remaining accused for offences under sections 120-B and 409 IPC and sections 13(1)(c)(d) and 13(2) of the PCA.