On July 17, a few hours before Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin left for Bengaluru to attend the conclave of opposition political parties, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided the residence of a second Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) Minister, K. Ponmudy and his son in connection with a decade-old case. In the meantime, in Chennai, a former AIADMK Minister, C. Vijayabaskar, received yet another reprieve from a local court and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in a similar case.
Earlier, on June 14, the ED had arrested DMK Minister, Senthil Balaji, after the ED and Income Tax authorities had repeatedly raided multiple premises belonging to the DMK Minister, in a cash-for-jobs scam, which is also nearly a decade old. This is a Supreme Court-monitored case.
The cases
The ED conducted searches in nine locations associated with Ponmudy and his son (who is also a Member of Parliament) Gautham Sigamani from July 17 morning. The case relates to the period when Ponmudy was Minister in charge of Mines and Minerals during the earlier DMK government (2006-2011). Ponmudy is alleged to have misused his position as a Minister and caused a loss of Rs. 28.36 crore to the Tamil Nadu exchequer.
The case was filed by the AIADMK government led by Jayalalithaa soon after it came to power in 2011. The Tamil Nadu Crime Branch had been investigating the case. The AIADMK was in power from 2011 to 2021, but could not gather enough proof to prosecute Ponmudy. The ED now says there is a money laundering angle to the crime, which technically allows the agency to interfere in the case.
The raids were being carried out under the protection of Central paramilitary forces–as has been the norm of the Central agencies in recent times. All the staff in the Minister’s house was asked to leave. His personal security officer too was asked to stay outside until the duration of the raid. In early July, Ponmudy had overcome one legal hurdle after the High Court acquitted him of a charge that he illegally acquired government land in Saidapet during his tenure as Minister from 1996-2001.
In Vijayabaskar’s case, the central agency has sought more time from the CBI court, for the eleventh time, to investigate the former AIADMK health minister in the so-called gutka case on which the CBI filed a charge sheet in November 2018. But the name of the Minister and two accused police officers were missing in the CBI chargesheet then. Vijayabaskar’s party, the AIADMK, is a BJP ally now. The Tamil Nadu Governor, R.N. Ravi, is yet to accord permission to the State government to prosecute former AIADMK Ministers. The file on Vijayabaskar is pending with the Governor since September 2022.
Chief Minister, Congress condemn the raid
Stalin said that his party would not be cowed down by these tactics aimed at intimidation. “Governor Ravi is already campaigning for us (with his outbursts and actions). Now the ED has joined him,” he told presspersons at the airport, before leaving for Bangalore. “I think that, for us, the (2024) election campaign will be easy… All these are normal these days. These (the raids) are diversionary tactics. The people are watching all that is happening,” he added.
Senior DMK leader R.S. Bharathi, who reached Ponmudy’s residence, said that the action was taken by a person in charge of the ED, whose extension was held as illegal by the Supreme Court. “Any action taken by such a person who was illegally appointed will amount to illegality,” he said and added that the DMK will fight these battles in the courts.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge condemned the raids and termed the events a “predictable script”. Noting that the raids were being conducted “just before our crucial opposition meeting,” he said that “this has become Modi government’s predictable script to intimidate and divide the opposition.” Contending that the BJP had “suddenly woken up to the need of putting together an alliance of ideologically opposed parties,” he asserted that “all like-minded parties are united against the vendetta politics of the Modi Government.”
Questions over Governor’s silence
Meanwhile, the Governor has been silent on the DMK government’s demand for permission to prosecute former AIADMK Ministers accused of corruption. A July 6 Raj Bhavan release said the cases of two Ministers, including Vijayabaskar, “are under legal examination.”
After the DMK government made it public that prosecution permission was sought, a Raj Bhavan press release dated July 6 claimed that “with respect to the Directorate of Vigilance case against Thiru K.C. Veeramani, the same could not be acted upon due to the fact that the State Government has to submit a duly authenticated copy of the investigation report for further action. Raj Bhavan has not received any reference or request in respect of Thiru M.R. Vijaya Bhaskar (different from the Health Minister C. Vijayabaskar) from the State Government.”
The same day (July 7), the State government released the acknowledgement which showed that a file bearing number AC/454/2021 was received by the Raj Bhavan on September 12, 2022. Also, another file (AC/351/2021) was received by the Principal Secretary to the Governor on May 15, 2023. This was regarding K.C. Veeramani.
After the government made these acknowledgements public, there has been silence from the Governor. He has neither accorded prosecution sanction against the AIADMK Ministers nor has he withdrawn the press release which claimed that the Raj Bhavan had not received the file on Vijaya Bhaskar.
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