TN Minister Ponmudy appears before ED

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Higher Education Minister K Ponmudy on Thursday appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for questioning, official sources said. This the second time the senior DMK leader and minister is summoned and grilled by the ED sleuths in the last four months.

The probe agency had in July conducted searches on properties associated with Ponmudy as well as his son Gautham Sigamani, who is an MP, in a money laundering case linked to alleged illegal sand mining.

ED had said that purchase and sale of Indonesian firm for Rs.100 crore by Ponmudy's family mired with hawala transactions and that proceeds obtained from illegal mining were deposited in benami accounts and were layered through multiple transactions and accounts.

ED had alleged that an Indonesian company, which was shown to have been purchased for a nominal amount of Rs. 41.57 lakh, was later sold for over Rs 100 crore in 2022. It is suspected that huge amounts of cash were transferred through hawala and infused in purchase of these overseas entities.

In July during the search at the premises belong to the minister and his son, after registering a case under PMLA in connection with the alleged issuance of red sand mining licenses at five locations. Ponmudy was the then Minister of mines in 2007. The ED seized unaccounted cash amounting to Rs. 81.7 lakh was seized, along with unexplained foreign currency equivalent to Rs. 13 lakhs. Furthermore, an amount of Rs. 41.9 crore, identified as direct proceeds of crime, was freezed under Section 17 (1A) of PMLA as it was held in the form of a Fixed Deposit in July.