ED searches DMK minister Ponmudy’s premises

Tamil Nadu Higher Education Minister K Ponmudy on Monday became the second high-profile leader from the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) to come under the scanner of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) with his premises being raided in connection with a 12-year-old case of granting illegal mining licenses. 

The raids came hours before leaders of 24 Opposition parties, including DMK chief and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin, converged in Bengaluru to take forward their fight against the BJP. 

Ponmudy, deputy general secretary of the DMK, is placed fifth in the pecking order of the Council of Ministers headed by Chief Minister M K Stalin and a very senior leader of the party having served in every DMK dispensation since 1989. 

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The raids which began at 7 am in at least nine locations, including the minister’s residence in Chennai, continued at the time of writing. Premises connected to Ponmudy’s son and Kallakurichi MP Gautham Sigamani were also searched by the ED. 

Sources in the ED said the raids are related to the 2012 case filed by the then AIADMK regime alleging that Ponmudy, as minister of mines and resources in 2007 during the DMK regime, obtained licenses for quarrying of red sand in the name of his son, Sigamani, and relatives without paying the required fees to the state government, which lost about Rs 28 crore. 

The raids came within a month of the Madras High Court refusing to stay proceedings in the case in which the minister, and his relatives are accused of quarrying 2.64 lakh loads of excess red sand. Ponmudy is the second minister after V Senthil Balaji to be raided by the ED – the former is now under judicial custody in connection with a money laundering case. 

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Reacting to the development, Stalin said the raids were nothing but a result of BJP getting “annoyed” at the Opposition closing the ranks and taking on the Narendra Modi-led government. “This is nothing but a tactic to divert attention from the Opposition meeting in Bengaluru. This has been happening in north India and has come to south India now. The DMK is not bothered about such raids,” Stalin added. 

Besides the premises owned by Ponmudy and his family, the ED also searched vehicles parked at the residence of the minister. Sources said the ED asked all private staff present at the minister’s office to leave before conducting the raids. 

The raids also come weeks after Ponmudy was acquitted by courts in a disproportionate assets (DA) case and a land grabbing case. This is not the first time Ponmudy’s family has come under the ED scanner – his son Sigamani’s properties worth Rs 8.60 crore were seized in October 2020 for illegally acquiring foreign security without approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) by Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA).

The ED had said it issued a seizure order under Section 37A of Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA) seizing properties held by the DMK MP to the tune of Rs 8.60 crores, equivalent to the value of the illegally acquired foreign security and non-repatriation of foreign exchange earned abroad till date.