Allies rally behind DMK as DVAC raids ED

MADURAI: Allies of the ruling party on Saturday rallied behind the DMK as the State DVAC, in a first, raided the Enforcement Directorate (ED) office in Madurai and arrested an officer for allegedly taking bribe from a government doctor.

State Congress president KS Alagiri, in a statement said that the arrest of officer Ankit Tiwari has exposed what the ED has been doing in Tamil Nadu and the DVAC has stumbled upon documents revealing the involvement of headquarters.

“Going by the documents, it is clear that the ED has been engaged in corruption negotiation instead of fighting corruption,” Alagiri added, wondering if his BJP counterpart K Annamalai was ready to collect evidence from ED before making sweeping allegations against the State government.

Former Congress whip and incumbent chairman of State Minorities Commission Peter Alphonse, in a message posted on the micro-blogging site ‘X’, said, “Hats off! Our enemy decides what weapon we must lift,” tagging the handles of CM Stalin and the DMK IT wing.

Former TNCC chief and Tiruchy MP Su Thirunavukkarasar said that the officers of ED were defaming the opposition leaders, but, now, its officers have been caught taking bribes.

“It has exposed the kind of rot in the administration of the union government,” he added. Congress MP from Karuru S Jothimani said that the ED was caught red-handed in Rajasthan earlier and now in Tamil Nadu.

“The BJP is aware of it and it has a role in it. BJP is a party to the loot of the ED and vice versa,” she added.

CPM leader Kanagaraj slammed the deployment of central forces at the ED office on Friday and asked, “What would happen, if in the future, the State government deploys the State police when some central agency raids a government office. It is a dangerous trend.”

MMK MLA MH Jawahirullah said the arrest of the ED officers in many states shows the abuse of the agency by the ruling BJP and the arrest has put the BJP-led union government to shame.

Meanwhile, state BJP president K Annamalai said that entire agency (ED) cannot be blamed or defamed for the act of an individual.

Stating that action must be taken against ED officers caught taking bribes, Annamalai said that the politicians in Tamil Nadu were acting in a very immature manner by defaming an entire agency for the act (fault) of an individual.

Talking at the Thoothukudi airport, the BJP chief said it was needless to blame the Centre.

However, action should be taken against anybody found guilty, and sought fair inquiry in the case.