CHENNAI: The Chennai Zonal Office of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached two immovable properties worth Rs 100.92 crore belonging to Orathanad MLA R. Vaithilingam.
Vaithilingam served as Tamil Nadu's Minister for Housing and Urban Development in the AIADMK regime from 2011 to 2016.
The attachment, made under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2022, was carried out on 9 January. The properties are registered in the name of M/s Muthammal Estates Pvt Ltd, a company owned by Vaithilingam’s family, according to an official release issued on Wednesday.
The central agency’s investigation stemmed from an FIR lodged by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC), Chennai. The FIR was registered under Section 120B of the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
It alleged corruption by Vaithilingam during his tenure as Minister for Housing and Urban Development in 2016 when the AIADMK was in power.
According to the ED, Vaithilingam allegedly accepted a bribe of ₹27.90 crore from Shriram Properties & Infrastructure Pvt Ltd in exchange for granting planning permission for a real estate project.
Earlier, searches conducted during the investigation revealed a systematic modus operandi involving the use of shell companies to layer and disguise bribe payments as share application money, the agency stated.
These payments, purportedly made by Shriram group entities for land purchases, were never intended for actual acquisition. Instead, the funds were routed through multiple shell entities before being channelled into M/s Muthammal Estates Pvt Ltd, controlled by Vaithilingam’s family members.
The illicit proceeds were subsequently used to purchase various immovable properties in Trichy, which have now been provisionally attached by the ED.
Vaithilingam was expelled from the AIADMK, along with former Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam, in 2022.
Further investigation into the case is ongoing, the agency added.