‘AI-generated’ book purchase case: DMK’s Paranthamen moves Madras High Court seeking registration of FIR by DVAC

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) Legal Wing joint secretary I. Paranthamen has filed a writ petition in the Madras High Court seeking a direction to the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti Corruption (DVAC) to register a First Information Report (FIR) on the basis of a complaint lodged by him regarding alleged irregularities in procurement of books for Periyar Arivulagam library in Coimbatore.

In a related development before a Division Bench of Justices G.R. Swaminathan and M.D. Sumathi in the Madurai Bench of the High Court on Tuesday (November 10, 2026), State Public Prosecutor R. John Sathyan said, the DVAC had commenced a ‘detailed enquiry’ into the issue on November 7, 2026 on the basis of a complaint lodged by the School Education department on November 6, 2026.

Justice Swaminathan told the SPP that the DVAC could wind up the ‘detailed enquiry’ as contemplated under the DVAC Manual as early as possible and register a FIR forthwith since it would take hardly take anytime to go through the records and find out the names of government officials and other individuals who were responsible for the purchase of dubious “AI generated” books for the public library.

In his affidavit, filed through advocate A. Damodaran, Mr. Paranthamen said, the Periyar Arivulagam comprising of a library and a science centre was conceived and executed by the Tamil Nadu government as a major knowledge centre for students, researchers and all others.

It was established at a cost of ₹300 crore which was inclusive of ₹245 crore towards civil construction, ₹50 crore for procurement of books and ₹5 crore for IT infrastructure. The government had on November 5, 2025 constituted a 112-member book recommendation committee to identity the titles to be purchased for the library.

A meeting for selection of the books was held on January 9, 2026 and the purchase orders were issued on February 2, 2026. The library was inaugurated on October 16, 2026 and a major controversy erupted thereafter over the quality of the books.

Acclaimed author Perumal Murugan, who was also one of the members of the book recommendation committee, wrote an article on November 6, 2026 highlighting that the library was filled with “AI generated” books carrying fictitious author names.

He also brought to light that those books contained incorrect historical and factual information and were priced far above comparable publications. Mr. Parathamen said, he had lodged a complaint with the DVAC on November 7, 2026 but complained that the latter had neither registered any FIR on his complaint nor informed him about a preliminary inquiry being conducted by it.

He insisted that the DVAC must register a case forthwith and seize all official documents related to the book procurement so that they do not end up being altered, misplaced of destroyed. In his complaint, the DMK office-bearer had said that Agalvilakku Publications and Phoenix Publications appeared to have supplied the books generated using AI tools rather than having been written by genuine authors.

He said the International Standard Book Numbers (ISBN) for those books do not appear to have been obtained title wise and instead obtained in bulk blocks. “Such output is humanly implausible and raises serious doubt as to whether these authors exist at all,” he said.