ED raids and questions TN minister Ponmudy; Stalin says agency welcome to 'campaign' for DMK

Stalin says ED raids a 'tactic to divert attention'

In yet another embarrassment to the ruling party, Tamil Nadu Higher Education Minister K Ponmudy on Monday became the second high-profile DMK leader to come under Enforcement Directorate (ED)’s scanner with premises connected to him being raided in a 11-year-old case of illegal red sand quarrying.

After 13 hours of raids at several locations in Chennai, and Villupuram among others, Ponmudy and his son Gautam Sigamani, also the DMK MP from Kallakurichi, were taken to the ED office for recording their statement under Section 50 of the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act, 2002

The development came on a day when leaders of 24 Opposition parties, including DMK chief and Chief Minister M K Stalin, met in Bengaluru to take forward their fight against the BJP. Ponmudy is the second DMK minister after V Senthil Balaji to be raided by the ED in recent months – the former is now under judicial custody in connection with a money laundering case.

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Ponmudy, deputy general secretary of the DMK, is placed fifth in the pecking order of the Council of Ministers headed by Stalin. A senior leader having served in every party-led dispensation since 1989, Ponmudy had quit as professor to contest the Assembly elections in 1989 after having been involved with the DMK since his student days.

As Higher Education Minister, Ponmudy has been quite critical of Governor R N Ravi for his repeated statements on the language issue and “interference” in the functioning of state-funded universities.

Sources said the raids are related to a 2012 case filed during the then AIADMK regime alleging that Ponmudy, as minister of mines and resources in 2007 during the DMK regime, obtained licenses for quarrying of red sand in the name of his son, Sigamani and relatives, disregarding several rules and regulations.

The allegations also include that they mined more sand than allowed by the government – 2.64 lakh loads – causing a loss of Rs 28 crore to the exchequer. The Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC), which filed the case in 2012, had arrested Ponmudy, but he was later released.

Reacting to the development, Stalin said the raids were nothing but a result of BJP getting “annoyed” at the Opposition closing the ranks and taking on the Narendra Modi-led government. “This is nothing but a tactic to divert attention from the Opposition meeting in Bengaluru. This has been happening in north India and has come to south India now. The DMK is not bothered about such raids,” Stalin added.

In a sarcastic comment, Stalin also said the ED was welcome to join Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi in “campaigning for the DMK” which will make his job in the elections easier, alluding that such raids will only help the Dravidian party in the state.

The raids also came weeks after Ponmudy was acquitted by courts in a disproportionate assets (DA) case and a land grabbing case.

This is not the first time Ponmudy’s family has come under the ED scanner – his son Sigamani’s properties worth Rs 8.60 crore were seized in October 2020 for illegally acquiring foreign security without approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) by Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA).

The ED had said it issued a seizure order under Section 37A of Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA) seizing properties held by the DMK MP to the tune of Rs 8.60 crore, equivalent to the value of the illegally acquired foreign security and non-repatriation of foreign exchange earned abroad till date.