Karur, Mar 6 (UNI) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) sleuths on Thursday conducted searches at the premises of close aides of senior DMK leader and Tamil Nadu Minister for Electricity, Prohibition and Excise V.Senthilbalaji in Karur and some other locations in the state in connection with alleged money laundering case.
The searches began this morning at the office of M.C.Shankar Anand, a government contractor for Public Works Department (PWD) said to be a close associate of Senthilbalaji at Palaniyappa Nagar, besides the house of M.Subramani, who is running Kongu Mess – a restaurant at Rayanur and Sakthi restaurant owner Sakthivel at Kothai Nagar, both of them were friends of the Minister, police sources said.
About 20 ED officials from Kerala and Tamil Nadu were carrying out the searches under the security cover of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel, over alleged irregularities in the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (TASMAC).
The ED sleuths carried out similar searches at the same premises of Senthilbalaji’s close aides in 2023 and 2024 in connection with the money laundering case.
The ED arrested the Minister in a money laundering case on June 14, 2023. The Supreme Court granted bail to him on September 26, 2024 and subsequently he was reinstated as Minister for Electricity, Prohibition and Excise, with the same portfolio he had held from May 2021 to June 2023.
The ED, in its previous case, charged of committing financial irregularities when Senthilbalaji was the Transport Minister between 2011 and 2015 during the then AIADMK regime.
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