Income Tax officials carry out searches against Tamil Nadu minister EV Velu

Raids were carried out in more than 40 locations, including at his hometown in Tiruvannamalai, and residences, offices and educational institutions owned by him across the state in Chennai, Coimbatore and Karur

Published on: Nov 3, 2023, 14:50:15 IST

By Divya Chandrababu

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Officials from the Income Tax department on Friday carried out searches at multiple locations in Tamil Nadu linked to minister of public works department EV Velu, the third cabinet member in the DMK government and fourth party leader to come under the scanner.

For representational purposes only. (Mint File Photo)

Raids were carried out in more than 40 locations, including at his hometown in Tiruvannamalai, and residences, offices and educational institutions owned by him across the state in Chennai, Coimbatore and Karur, a police officer said.

Velu is considered close to chief minister and DMK president MK Stalin and was food minister in the previous DMK cabinet from 2006-2011.

DMK leader and Tamil Nadu minister Udhayanidhi Stalin alleged that agencies like the I-T and Enforcement Directorate (ED) have become the Bharatiya Janata Party’s “political wings”.

Velu is the fourth senior DMK leader to be raided by federal agencies in the past few months. His cabinet colleague V Senthil Balaji is currently lodged in the Puzhal Central Jail in a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act filed by the ED, which also raided and questioned higher education minister K Ponmudy.

The I-T department last month carried out raids against Arakkonam MP S Jagathrakshagan.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Divya Chandrababu
Divya Chandrababu is an award-winning political and human rights journalist based in Chennai, India. Divya is presently Assistant Editor of the Hindustan Times where she covers Tamil Nadu & Puducherry. She started her career as a broadcast journalist at NDTV-Hindu where she anchored and wrote prime time news bulletins. Later, she covered politics, development, mental health, child and disability rights for The Times of India. Divya has been a journalism fellow for several programs including the Asia Journalism Fellowship at Singapore and the KAS Media Asia- The Caravan for narrative journalism. Divya has a master's in politics and international studies from the University of Warwick, UK. As an independent journalist Divya has written for Indian and foreign publications on domestic and international affairs.Read More

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