The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday raided properties linked to Tamil Nadu minister and DMK senior leader I. Periyasamy and his MLA son, I.P. Senthil Kumar, in Chennai and Dindigul as part of an ongoing probe under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), sources said.
Responding to the ED raids, the ruling DMK in the state said it was an attempt to divert attention from “vote chori”, a term coined by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over alleged electoral fraud in the 2024 elections that the BJP-led NDA won.
Periyasamy represents the Athoor Assembly constituency in Dindigul district.
Sources said the premises of Senthil Kumar, the son of the 72-year-old minister for rural development, panchayats and panchayat unions, were also raided.
An ED official said Periyasamy allegedly amassed assets disproportionate to his known sources of income. Assets in his name, and those of his wife and son, valued at ₹2.1 crore, were allegedly acquired during his tenure as a minister from 2006 to 2010.
The investigation by the ED follows a directive in April from Madras High Court, which ordered a special court in Dindigul to frame charges against Periyasamy and his family members in connection with the “disproportionate” assets case.
The order came in response to some criminal revision petitions filed by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC), challenging a special court order discharging Periyasamy and his family members from the case.
The high court also directed the special court to conduct the trial on a day-to-day basis and complete it within six months.
DMK organisation secretary R.S. Bharathi said the party would “neither fear the ED nor Modi”.
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
a 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 DMK has in the past accused central agencies of misusing their powers to target its leaders.