Chennai: The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) has filed a batch of separate writ petitions to the Madras High Court seeking money laundering cases against nine leaders from the previous All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) administration.
The petitions name former ministers S.P. Velumani, C. Vijayabaskar, K.P. Anbalagan, C. Kamaraj, K.C. Veeramani, M.R. Vijayabaskar among others.
Others to be named are Kunnarapalayam MLA P. Thangamani, former MLA B. Sathyanarayanan, and R. Elangovan, who is also a relative of former chief minister and AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami.
The petition has come up at a significant political juncture in Tamil Nadu, with the state set to go for polls on 23 April.
By urging the HC to direct the Enforcement Directorate to register cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, the petitions not only revives corruption allegations against the AIADMK, but also influence the campaign discourse before the polls.
The Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) has already registered an First Information Report (FIR) against Velumani.
The allegations against Velumani include irregularities in road construction projects within municipal corporation limits during his tenure as minister, acquisition of assets disproportionate to his known sources of income, and irregularities in the procurement of LED light.
The petitions stated that the previous investigations pertaining to the disproportionate assets cases were pending against Thangamani, Anbalagan, Kamaraj, Vijayabaskar, Vijayabaskar, and Veeramani.
Investigation also remains pending against former MLA Sathya for the acquisition of disproportionate assets, and against Elangovan regarding allegations of corruption and financial irregularities, they mentioned.
In each separate affidavit, Rajya Sabha MP R. Girirajan, an advocate himself, states that the DVAC has already registered FIRs against all the accused for grave offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. These include criminal misconduct by public servants, acceptance of illegal gratification, conspiracy, cheating, and most crucially, possession of assets disproportionate to known sources of income.
The petitions state that once an FIR is registered and its details are publicly available on the DVAC website, the ED is statutorily obligated to register an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) and probe the laundering of “proceeds of crime”, without needing any fresh preliminary inquiry.
Despite multiple complaints submitted to the ED and the public availability of DVAC FIRs, no ECIR has been registered so far, they added.
This inaction, according to Girirajan, is arbitrary, illegal, and politically motivated. He pointed out that the accused are closely associated with the AIADMK, which is currently in alliance with the ruling party at the Centre, giving rise to a “reasonable apprehension” that political considerations have influenced the ED’s failure to act.
The petitions emphasise that the rule of law and Article 21 (protection of life & liberty) of the Constitution demand impartial investigation. “Failure to attach and confiscate tainted assets would frustrate the very object of the PMLA, which is to prevent laundering of illicit money generated through corruption,” they said.
He asked for immediate directions to the ED to register ECIRs against each of the nine individuals, conduct thorough investigations into the proceeds of crime, trace and attach properties, and proceed in accordance with law.
AIADMK national spokesperson Kovai Sathya called the petitions an ‘election stunt’.
“DMK made tall claims in 2021 that they would bring back the black money. Now why do they want to go to the Court for any directive to E, especially after the election notification has come,” Sathya told ThePrint.
“They want to paint a bad picture of AIADMK, while they themselves have corruption cases against ministers like Senthil Balaji and K N Nehru.”
(Edited by Tony Rai)