Ponmudy and his son came on the ED's radar following a decade-old case filed by the then AIADMK government.
Published Jul 18, 2023 | 1:18 AM ⚊ Updated Jul 18, 2023 | 1:19 AM
The officials concluded the raids at 7 pm and a 'seizure memo' was prepared and obtained signature from the minister. (Supplied)
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on the evening of Monday, 17 July, took away Tamil Nadu Higher Education Minister K Ponmudy for interrogation in Chennai.
The ED action came after its officials carried out raids for nearly 12 hours at more than seven places related to Ponmudy and his son Gowtham Sigamani, who is also a DMK MP.
The ED sleuths picked up the minister in his own car and transported him to the joint director’s office at Shastri Bhavan in the Nungambakkam area of Chennai.
According to sources, during the raids at the residence of the minister in Chennai, the ED officials found cash to the tune of ₹70 lakh and foreign currencies — including dollars and pounds — worth ₹10 lakh.
Several incriminating documents were also seized during the raids.
A jewel appraiser from the Indian Bank was brought to the minister’s Chennai residence at Saidapet.
The ED concluded the raids at 7 pm and a “seizure memo” was prepared, on which the agency’s officials obtained signatures from the minister and his son, as well as two witnesses.
The officials carried away two suitcases of seized documents with them, from the minister’s house.
Around 8 pm, Ponmudy was summoned — under section 50 of the PMLA Act — to appear for an interrogation seeking an explanation for the seized documents.
The ED sleuths subsequently took the minister with them. However, they allowed Ponmudy to come in his own car, accompanied by two ED officials.
The national flag was removed from the minister’s car while he was proceeding to the local ED office.
Around 8.45 pm, the minister reached the joint director’s office and he was taken for interrogation.
Ponmudy at ED Office in Nungambakkam. (Supplied)
Sources from the ED said that the Ponmudy and his son were interrogated separately. The statements of the minister and his son Gowtham Sigamani were recorded.
Later, Ponmudy’s auditor was also brought to the ED office for verifying the details provided by the minister.
Meanwhile, the raids conducted at Ponmudy’s Viluppuram house concluded at 10 pm.
However, the raids at Surya Educational Trust, which manages the Vikravandi-located Surya Engineering College, which is owned by the minister, continued till midnight.
Ponmudy and his son came on the ED’s radar following a decade-old case filed by the then AIADMK government, alleging that Ponmudy abused his power while he was a minister for mines and minerals in the then DMK regime between 2007 and 2009.
The complaint said the minister used his powers to allot red sand quarries to his son and relatives, causing a loss of ₹28.36 crore to the state exchequer through excessive mining of red sand without paying a seigniorage fee.
The ED already had Gowtham Sigamani on its radar, having conducted searches on properties linked to him in 2020.
Back then, the agency attached properties worth ₹8.6 crore belonging to him and allegedly linked to illegal acquisition and non-repatriation of foreign exchange earnings from overseas.
The ED also found that the DMK MP allegedly invested ₹7.5 lakh in the UAE, and ₹41 lakh in a company in Indonesia.
In June this year, the Madras High Court dismissed a plea by Gowtham that sought to quash the case against him pending before the special court for cases against MP/MLAs and the principal district sessions court in Villupuram.
