DMK sees another saffron party onslaught as ED raids premises linked to gen secy

CHENNAI: The ruling DMK, which leads the charge against the BJP in the Dravidian heartland, was hit by another Enforcement Directorate (ED) onslaught on Friday.

Sleuths of the ED raided the residence of DMK general secretary and State Mines Minister Duraimurugan's son Kathir Anand and his associate 'Poonjolai' Srinivasan in Vellore in connection with the case filed by the Income Tax Department on the cash for votes charge during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The DMK general secretary was only the latest in the list of the party heavyweights who faced ED scrutiny over the last few years. Earlier, other DMK leaders like K Ponmudy, V Senthilbalaji, S Jagathrakshakan, A Raja and Anitha Radhakrishnan were also subjected to various degrees of prosecution by the much-dreaded investigation agency of the Union government.

While incumbent Forest Minister K Ponmudy appeared before the ED as recently as December third week in a money-laundering case linked to his son and former MP Gautham Sigamani in relation to alleged illegal mining activities, senior party MP and former Union minister Jagathrakshakan and family faced Rs 908 crore fine imposed by the agency in a Foreign Exchange Maintenance Act (FEMA) case in August 2024.

A little over a year ago, the agency took possession of the 15 'benami' assets of former telecom minister A Raja. The ED has been showing extraordinary interest in going after incumbent State Fisheries Minister Anitha Radhakrishnan in connection with the DA case against him. Incumbent Electricity Minister V Senthilbalaji's troubles with the ED is a matter worthy of penning political fiction. Balaji's infamous arrest and incarceration for over a year, sacking and its reversal by Governor R N Ravi after the ED arrest, and most recently, the agency's plea to cancel his bail in the Supreme Court offered enough reasons to damage the already bitter ties between the DMK and BJP-more so Raj Bhavan seen as the saffron party's proxy.

Surprisingly, the DMK did not endure the agency offensive merely by playing the waiting game. In what was alleged to be a daring show of retaliation that sparked a political firestorm in the country, the DMK regime arrested ED officer Ankit Tiwari on charges of extortion and bribery after he was allegedly caught taking Rs 20 lakh bribe from a government doctor in Dindigul in December 2023, months after Senthilbalaji's arrest by the anti-money laundering watchdog. Like its alliance partners attributing political motives to such central agency raids, which have mostly resulted in a major political fallout elsewhere in the country, the DMK also viewed the raids through the same political prism. State Agriculture Minister MRK Panneerselvam interpreted the raid as a pressure on the State government. He added that the Union government was exerting pressure instead of providing funds to the Tamil Nadu government.

A confident Panneerselvam even said that such raids in the past have only helped the party sweep the polls in the state.