ED puts DMK Minister Ponmudy in crosshairs again, attaches family's assets worth Rs 14.2 crore
ED initiated investigation on the basis of FIR registered by the Tamil Nadu police under various sections of IPC, 1860 and PC Act, 2018 against K. Ponmudi, P. Gautham Sigamani and others.
Directorate of Enforcement (ANI)
CHENNAI: Continuing its crackdown on senior DMK leader and Higher Education Minister K Ponmudy in the case of illegal red earth mining, the Enforcement Directorate, Chennai, provisionally attached immovable and movable properties worth more than Rs 14 crore owned by his family members and associates and also his son and former Lok Sabha member P Gautham Sigamani.
The assets attached include the fixed deposits and bank balance amounting to Rs 8.74 crore in total held in the name of M/s Confluence – an entity belonging to Gautham Sigamani’s wife - and also immovable properties totally valued at Rs 5.7 crore held in the name of Gautham’s brother-in-law KS Raja Mahendran and his entities.
Together, movable and immovable properties valued at Rs 14.21 were identified and provisionally attached, the central agency said on Friday.
The directorate initiated an investigation on the basis of the FIR earlier registered by the Tamil Nadu police under various sections of the IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act, 2018, against Ponmudy, Gautham Sigamani and others.
The agency said its investigation revealed that during the years between 2007 and 2010, when he was the State Minister of Mines, Ponmudy managed to allot five licenses in the names of Gautham Sigamani, KS Rajamahendran and Jayachandran, who admitted to acting on behalf of Gautham for quarrying red earth in patta lands.
The investigation revealed that the red earth was extracted illegally beyond the permitted limits to the tune of Rs 25.7 crore. The investigation also revealed that the sale proceeds were invested in the overseas entity, claimed the central agency.
Searches were conducted in July last year, resulting in seizure of cash totalling Rs 81.42 lakh, along with unexplained foreign currency, primarily in British pounds, equivalent to approximately Rs 13 lakh, it said, and added that amounts to the tune of Rs 41.9 crore lying in the form of fixed deposits were seized.