The Enforcement Directorate on Monday took DMK leader and Tamil Nadu Higher Education Minister K Ponmudy for questioning in a money laundering case, news agency ANI reported. Earlier today, ED officials had conducted the raids at the premises of the Tamil Nadu Minister and his MP son Gautham Sigamani.
The minister, 72, is an MLA from the Villupuram district's Tirukkoyilur Assembly seat, while his 49-year-old son Sigamani is a Member of Parliament from the Kallakurichi constituency. The money laundering issue is connected to alleged irregularities during Ponmudy's tenure as state mining minister (between 2007 and 2011), when there were claims of violation of quarry licence requirements, resulting in a loss to the exchequer of around Rs 28 crore.
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The state police had filed a complaint to investigate these allegations of corruption against the minister and others associated with him, and the Madras High Court declined to halt the trial in this matter in June when Sigamani came it with a petition for relief.
The minister is suspected of acquiring mining/quarry licences for his son and other family members, and the licensees are accused of quarrying red sand in excess of the legal limit. According to the High Court, there are grounds to believe that the petitioner committed the crime, and hence the trial cannot be halted.
The ED recently took a similar move against another minister in Chief Minister M K Stalin's cabinet, arresting Transport Minister Senthil Balaji in an alleged cash-for-jobs-related money laundering case. The move against Balaji has been condemned by Stalin and the DMK as "intimidation politics" by the Centre.