Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu: Water Resources Minister Duraimurugan's Son, Kathir Anand And Higher Education Minister K Ponmudy Summoned By ED
Duraimurugan(L), Kathir Anand (C), Chief Minister MK Stalin (R) (Twitter)
Kathir Anand, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) MP from Vellore has been summoned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), reported Dinamalar.
According to the report, the summons is in connection with a case against him for money that was seized from premises connected to his father Duraimurugan, who is the Water Resources minister and general secretary of the party, and his associates during the Lok Sabha elections in 2019.
The Income Tax department had seized Rs 10.5 lakh from the house of Duraimurugan. This cash was stated to be exceeding the amount declared by Anand in his election affidavit and a case was registered against him by the police at the Katpadi police station under the Representation of People Act for giving wrong information, reported NDTV.
The report also stated that Rs 11.53 crore was seized by the officials from a cement godown belonging to an associate.
This comes at a time when the ED is probing illegal sand mining in the state. Sand mining is under the Water Resources department.
A statement issued by the ED regarding the seizures after statewide raids in September 2023 said, "During the search incriminating documents including diaries, bogus fake sale receipts with counterfeit QR code were found suggestive of illegal sand sales. Evidences of bogus transactions, benami companies were found. During the search, Rs. 12.82 Crore was put under freeze and unaccounted cash for Rs. 2.33 Crore was seized along with gold weighing 1024.6 grams worth Rs 56.86 Lakh."
Gudiyatham Kumaran, who was the DMK's deputy secretary of policy propagation recently released a video stating that Duraimurugan had looted Rs 60000 crore through illegal sand mining and that he would release the evidence soon.
He was suspended from the party by Duraimurugan.
The ED has also summoned Higher Education minister K Ponmudy, according to a report by the Times of India. The agency had recently filed a chargesheet against his son P Gautham Sigamani and others for laundering the proceeds of excess quarrying of red sand.
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