CHENNAI: Accusing the Enforcement Directorate (ED) of “continued inaction” in not initiating action against BJP state president Nainar Nagenthran and the party’s former general secretary for organisation, Kesava Vinayagam, for “laundering money to distribute to voters” in the Tirunelveli Lok Sabha constituency during the 2024 polls, the ruling DMK has approached the Madras High Court seeking a direction to the central agency to take appropriate action in this connection.
DMK Rajya Sabha member R Girirajan has filed a petition in the court wherein he recalled that Rs 3.98 crore was seized from three persons, having links to Nagenthran, in a train compartment at Tambaram on April 6, 2024.
A case was initially registered by the Tambaram police and later it was transferred to CB-CID which altered the sections to 171 (C), 171 (E), 171 (F), 120 (B), 109, 420 r/w 511 and 188 of the IPC.
The alleged acts of transporting money for the purpose of distribution to voters at the instance of Nagenthran and Vinayagam constitute scheduled offence under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, and the materials collected during the probe disclosed commission of serious cognisable offences, including conspiracy and cheating, thereby attracting provisions relating to “proceeds of crime” as defined under Section 2 (1) (u) of PMLA, he said.
Girirajan alleged that despite the existence of clear materials indicating the generation and use of proceeds of crime, the ED has failed to register an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) due to extraneous considerations, including political factors, thereby defeating the objective of the Act.