CHENNAI: A day after the Madras High Court dismissed the petitions by Tasmac and the state government against the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) raids on the Tasmac premises last month, the central agency on Thursday issued summons to four senior Tasmac officials, including its managing director Dr S Visakan, for questioning in the alleged Rs 1,000 crore money laundering scam that the agency is investigating, official sources said.
Apart from Visakan, summons has been issued to three other top officials, including general managers, of the state-owned liquor distribution firm. They are slated to appear before the ED’s Chennai zonal office in Nungambakkam next week, sources indicated.
The quartet had already been issued summons earlier, but they sought more time to submit the documents which the ED had asked for. Incidentally, Visakan and three other officers had filed individual affidavits before the Madras High Court alleging harassment by ED during their searches from March 6-8 at the company’s office in Egmore, Chennai. However, the court found no evidence of harassment as alleged by the petitioners.
The ED probe is based on 41 FIRs registered by the state Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) alleging corruption in Tasmac operations from 2017-2024. According to an internal note of ED, Tasmac’s head office was specifically searched as it is a central repository and custodian of records relating to key operational domains, retail sales, supply orders, tender processes, staff transfers and inspections, all of which were implicated in the predicate offences.
In an official press note on March 13, ED had alleged manipulation in the allocation of Tasmac’s transport tender, bar licences and stated they had evidence to show direct communication between distilleries and Tasmac senior officials, which exposed efforts to secure increased orders and undue favours.
The release alleged large-scale financial fraud involving distillery companies SNJ, KALS, Accord, SAIFL and Shiva, which they said exposed a well-orchestrated scheme of unaccounted cash generation and illicit payments. ED said their probes revealed that distilleries inflated expenses and fabricated bogus purchases to siphon off over Rs 1,000 crore in unaccounted cash. These funds were then used for kickbacks to secure increased supply orders from Tasmac, ED alleged.