CHENNAI: The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday launched searches at 15 locations across Chennai and Kanchipuram in a money laundering case linked to alleged corruption in acquisition of land for National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and SIPCOT projects.
Sources said that ED officials from the Chennai zone began their searches early on Wednesday morning which continued through the day. Premises of businessmen involved in jewellery, iron, realty, and finance were searched by the agency, sources said.
The PMLA case has been registered based on two FIRs filed by Kancheepuram district police in 2022 and 2023 to investigate fake land owners claiming hundreds of crores of compensation based on forged documents.
Government officials were under the police’s scanner for allegedly colluding with land promoters in transferring government land to private entities. This was after four persons approached the government in May 2021 seeking interest on Rs 21.1 crore they received for handing over land for SIPCOT expansion, as the land was acquired in 2012 but compensation was paid only in 2020. The land parcels had been obtained through fake documents, the Kancheepuram police had found.
Similarly, another FIR deals with irregularities in the acquisition of land by NHAI for expansion of highways in the district.