Minister Ponmudy appears before ED in mining-related money laundering case

CHENNAI: Forest Minister K Ponmudy on Tuesday appeared before the Enforcement Directorate here for questioning in a money laundering case investigation, sources said.

The sources said the minister's statement was recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

In July, the central agency had attached assets worth more than Rs 14 crore in an alleged illegal mining-linked money laundering case against the 74-year-old DMK leader, his ex-MP son P Gautham Sigamani, and some family members.

The money laundering case related to alleged illegal red earth mining is based on an FIR filed by the crime branch of the State police, during the then AIADMK rule under Jayalalithaa. Cops under the AIADMK regime filed the case after the Dravidian major assumed office in 2011.

The ED had raided the minister's premises in July last year. Chief Minister M K Stalin had then said that the action was a "political vendetta of the Union BJP government."

During 2007-2010, when Ponmudy was the Minister of Mines, he "managed" to allot five licences in the names of Dr P Gautham Sigamani, Sigmani's brother-in-law KS Rajamahendran, and Jayachandran, who "admitted" to have had acted on behalf of Sigamani in the quarrying of red earth in 'patta' lands, the agency had said in a statement.

"Red earth was extracted illegally beyond the permitted limits to the tune of Rs 25.7 crore, and the sale proceeds were invested in the overseas entity," it had alleged.

The minister is an MLA from the Tirukkoyilur Assembly seat in Villupuram district, while his 50-year-old son Sigamani represented the Kallakurichi seat as an MP.