Even as the Enforcement Directorate was carrying out a raid on the residence of senior most DMK Minister and party General Secretary Duraimurugan at Katpadi in Vellore district on Friday, he called on Chief Minister MK Stalin at the secretariat here.
A team of sleuths from the ED, accompanied by a posse of CRPF personnel, landed at the DMK Minister’s residence at Katpadi in the morning. Since there was no one in the house, they waited for more than two hours to proceed with the search operation.
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During his meeting with the Chief Minister, Duraimurugan is believed to have apprised him of the details of the case. Prior to the meeting, he had discussions with his lawyers.
A party strongman and a steadfast loyalist of the DMK’s first family, Duraimurugan holds the portfolio of Water Resources while his son, Kathir Anand, is the sitting MP of Vellore. The father-son duo reside in the same house in Katpadi. In the 2019, the Lok Sabha election in Vellore was countermanded following large scale money distribution.
Then, the Income Tax sleuths have seized Rs 11 crore from a DMK functionary, Poonjolai Seenivasan, who is a close associate of the minister. A case has been registered separately by the ED in this connection. But, Kathir Anand had won the election, held later on. The present raid by the ED is said to be in continuation of the investigation in that case pertaining to seizure of Rs 11 crore in cash.
Reacting to the development, Agriculture Minister MRK Panneerselvam said, “This is the usual tactic of the BJP- led Union Government to target the DMK. We have faced many such things in the past. We will face it in the appropriate way. Last time they did this, we won the election.”
