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Vigilance raids former AIADMK minister KP Anbazhagan in disproportionate assets case
Anbazhagan is the fifth former minister to be booked and searched by the DVAC since the DMK government took over in May
Chennai:
Vigilance raids were conducted on Thursday in 58 places connected to AIADMK leader and former education minister K P Anbazhagan on charges of amassing wealth disproportionate to his income, Directorate of Vigilance and Anti Corruption (DVAC) officials said.
Anbazhagan is the fifth former minister to be booked and searched by the DVAC since the DMK government took over in May. The DVAC had earlier raided former ministers C Vijayabhaskar, S P Velumani, M R Vijayabhaskar and P Thangamani.
The DVAC on Wednesday registered an FIR against Anbazhagan on charges that he and his family members amassed wealth of ₹11.32 crore disproportionate to his income. The check period is between 2016 and 2021 and during this time the pecuniary resources and properties acquired by him and those in the name of his family should not have exceeded ₹10.1 crore, according to the FIR.
A case has been registered against Anbalagan (62), his wife A Malliga (55), his sons A Sasimohan (29) and A Chandramohan (32), and S Vaishnavee (32), wife of Chandramohan. “The raids are being carried out across Tamil Nadu in the districts of Chennai, Dharmapuri and Salem,” said a DVAC official. One place in Telangana was also raided. “We have learnt that the main accused (Anbazhagan) had acquired many assets in his name, in the names of his family, relatives, and associates, which are disproportionate to his known sources of income, in various places in and around Tamil Nadu and outside,” the official said.
The DVAC in a statement said that they could not find the material objects and documents pertaining to the case. “During the course of the search, an amount of ₹2,87,98,650, gold ornaments weighing about 6.637 kilograms, 13.85 kilograms of silver and other incriminating documents were found and among them unaccounted cash of ₹2,65,31,650, bank locker key and documents pertaining to the case were seized,” the agency said, adding that this case continues to be under investigation.
According to the FIR, it has been revealed that Anbalagan runs a hot mix plant and a rough stone quarry in Dharmapuri district in the name of his son-in-law P Ravishankar and that of his brother-in-law P Saravanan. He runs a granite factory, Ganesh Granite, located in Chennai in the name of his sister’s daughter Deepa and her son-in-law N Sivakumar. The FIR says Sivakumar holds 80% shares in Sri Vaishnavi Granite Industries’ office located in Telangana.
The former minister and his family members have been booked under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
Anbazhagan was elected as an MLA from the Palacode constituency five times consecutively from 2001 until now. He was minister for higher education from 2016 to 2021. He was also holding the post of minister for agriculture from 2020 to 2021. He held the portfolios as minister for municipal administration, rural development and the minister for information between 2001 and 2006.
Supporters of Anbazhagan gathered outside his residence in Dharmapuri and raised slogans against the DMK government and chief minister M K Stalin. AIADMK’s joint coordinator and former chief minister Edappadi Palaniswami called the raids as DMK’s diversionary tactics to shift focus from irregularities pointed out in the Pongal gift hamper scheme.
The DMK government distributed Pongal gifts of 21 grocery items, including 100 gram of ghee produced by the state-owned Aavin, varieties of dal and a full sugarcane, to more than 20 million ration card holders ahead of the three day-festival which concluded last week. Allies AIADMK and BJP have accused the DMK of corruption in this scheme.
“When people are angry over huge corruption in the Pongal welfare distribution, they have conducted these raids to distract people,” Palaniswami told reporters in Salem. “From the time the DMK government took over, they have been using the agency (DVAC) to file false cases against AIADMK leaders. The DMK is seeking revenge and enacting such drama.”
DMK’s spokesperson A Saravanan denied that there have been irregularities in the Pongal welfare scheme. “There is no problem with it. Never before have 21 items and all quality items been distributed to 2.10 crore people,” said Saravanan. “Somewhere some jaggery had melted and that’s all the AIADMK is talking about. It shows their desperation.”
