CHENNAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday launched searches at seven locations linked to Tamil Nadu’s Rural Development Minister and senior DMK leader I Periyasamy and his family in connection with a money laundering case.
Responding sharply to the raids, the ruling DMK slammed it as an attempt to divert attention from the issue of "vote chori," raised by Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi.
DMK Organisation Secretary R S Bharathi said the party would "neither fear the ED nor Modi" and that the party will face the matter legally.
In a party statement, Bharathi alleged the BJP was using empowered and autonomous bodies as its "election instruments".
The same BJP that was accusing others of "illegal money laundering," was running the "politics of vote chori," he alleged in the statement.
"The BJP stands exposed for indulging in electoral fraud by using the Election Commission. The country is shocked over this. To divert attention from the illegal vote chori, the Enforcement Directorate is conducting searches at premises linked to Periyasamy," he alleged.
The ED showing interest in cases filed in the past against DMK leaders after the party came to power is "brazen political vendetta," which even a child can see through, he claimed.
The action also comes in the wake of the DMK properly responding to Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi's certain allegations made vis-a-vis Tamil Nadu including women's safety, Bharathi said.
Slamming ED, he referred to the judiciary pulling up the central agency in cases including the MUDA land controversy from neighbouring Karnataka.
Bharathi further said the files seeking the governor's sanction for action against some former TN ministers, apparently in Vigilance department cases, were pending in the Raj Bhavan.
He urged the the Centre to advice Ravi on the matter.
Further, in some cases, charge sheet has been filed against some AIADMK ex-ministers, but the ED was not taking note of these.
The Centre's only aim was to "conduct ED raids" in some DMK ministers' houses and create "an imagery of criminality," he alleged.
Meanwhile, senior DMK leader Kanimozhi asserted that the ruling party won't be cowed down by the ED searches.
"On one hand the BJP is using the EC to carry out attacks against democracy using SIR (Special Intensive Revision in Bihar) in a desperate bid to win elections.
"At the same time, agencies like IT, ED and CBI which they regularly use as a weapon against opposition, are being used against senior minsters of DMK as well. These agencies have been weaponised and used as instruments against opposition. One such raid is happening today. The DMK will face this," she told reporters in Tuticorin.
"The minister has crossed so many challenges and stood firm with DMK. No amount of intimidation will threaten our workers and leaders," she said.
The raids pertain to a 2012 case of the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC), which alleged that Periyasamy amassed disproportionate assets worth Rs 2.01 crore during his tenure as minister for revenue, law, prisons and housing in the 2006–11 DMK regime. Periyasamy’s wife, son and current MLA of the Palani constituency, IP Senthilkumar, another son and daughter were also named in the DVAC chargesheet, according to sources.
On April 29, the Madras High Court overturned a Dindigul court order that had discharged Periyasamy from the case, following which the ED launched a money laundering case against the minister.
The ED teams searched the minister’s official residence in Chennai and the government-allotted apartment of his son in the MLA hostel in Triplicane. In Dindigul, Periyasamy’s house in Durairaj Nagar, Senthilkumar’s house in Seelapadi and daughter Indrani’s house in Vallalar Nagar were searched.
The offices of a few companies linked to the family were also searched by the agency, sources said, adding that the searches continued through the day.
(With inputs from PTI)