Chennai, Dec 17: Tamil Nadu forest minister K Ponmudy on Tuesday appeared before the Enforcement Directorate here for questioning in a money laundering case investigation, official sources said.
The minister’s statement was recorded under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the sources said.
The central agency had in July attached assets worth more than Rs 14 crore in an alleged illegal mining-linked money laundering case against the 74-year-old minister, a DMK leader, his ex-MP son P Gautham Sigamani and some family members.
The money laundering case related to alleged illegal red earth mining stems from a state police (crime branch) FIR.
The ED had raided the premises of the minister in July last year and Tamil Nadu chief minister M K Stalin had then said that the action was a “political vendetta of the Union BJP government.”
During 2007-2010, when Ponmudy was the minister of mines, he “managed” to allot five licences in the names of Dr P Gautham Sigamani, Sigmani’s brother-in-law K S Rajamahendran, and Jayachandran, who “admitted” to have had acted on behalf of Sigamani in the quarrying of red earth in ‘patta’ lands, the agency had said in a statement.
“Red earth was extracted illegally beyond the permitted limits to the tune of Rs 25.7 crore and the sale proceeds were invested in the overseas entity,” it had alleged.
The minister is an MLA from the Tirukkoyilur Assembly seat in Villupuram district while his 50-year old son Sigamani represented the Kallakurichi seat as an MP. (PTI)
