It was only last week that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), accusing it of whitewashing corrupt practices of tainted opposing leaders and forcing them to join their party or alliance. Speaking at the NDTV Tamil Nadu Summit – sponsored by the Government of Tamil Nadu on January 30 – he called it their ‘washing machine’ approach.
Now, Stalin and his party, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), face the same allegation.
On January 21, former AIADMK minister and Orathanadu MLA R Vaithilingam joined the DMK. The MLA and his two sons, Prabu and Shanmuga Prabu, had appeared before the special court to try cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in Chennai on January 7, in connection with the money laundering chargesheet filed against them by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) in August 2025.
Vaithilingam and his family are accused of receiving Rs 27.9 crore as bribe from Shriram Properties and Infrastructure Limited in 2016 to allegedly clear a large real estate project of Shriram Properties and Infrastructure Ltd when he was the housing minister and chairman of the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) under AIADMK rule.
The predicate offence for the ED is an FIR filed by TN’s Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) in September 2024. The FIR also named Shriram Properties and Infrastructure Ltd and its former director KR Ramesh as the accused.
According to a DVAC source, the state agency’s probe is still “under inquiry.” Not much progress has been made in another disproportionate assets case filed against Vaithilingam and his sons either.
The delay in finalising investigations has led anti-corruption activist Jayaram Venkatesan to charge the DMK with quid pro quo, insinuating that the ruling party may drop the DVAC cases against him. Jayaram had filed the complaint with DVAC against Vaithilingam in 2022.
With ED filing the chargesheet, the only way for Vaithilingam to possibly escape unscathed would be if the predicate offence, the DVAC’s cases, are closed, as it would likely lead to the collapse of the money laundering case.
“This explains why he has joined the DMK, expecting the state agency to close the case so that the ED’s case will also automatically close,” Jayaram alleged.
Why Vaithilingam matters
Vaithilingam was an AIADMK’s strongman in the Thanjavur belt. He was firmly in former chief minister O Pannerselvam’s camp throughout his ‘Dharmayudham’ to take control of the AIADMK. His move to the DMK is expected to add more strength to the party in the delta regions of Tamil Nadu, considered the bastion of the DMK.
In the 2021 Assembly elections, the DMK led alliance asserted its dominance in winning 10 out of 12 Assembly constituencies in Thanjavur and Thiruvarur districts. Vaithilingam was one of only four AIADMK candidates who resisted the DMK wave in the larger delta region of central Tamil Nadu.
Like Pannerselvam, Vaithilingam is also from the Mukkulathor (Thevar) community, an electorally dominant caste group in the Thanjavur and Thiruvarur districts.
Political analyst TN Raghu said that this might have been an important consideration for the DMK. "DMK is warm to defections of AIADMK leaders who are from dominant communities like Mukkulathors and Gounder. Also, Mukkulathors have historically backed the AIADMK during Jayalalithaa's period, but that grip is now loosening. DMK wants to corner as much of that vote as possible," he said.
Political analyst CS Kotteswaran said in addition to the caste factor, DMK wants to take no risks in an election where the winning margin can be as narrow as 3-4%.
DMK spokesperson A Saravanan told TNM that the party was not willing to comment on the case against Vaithilingam.
Money trail
ED’s investigation and subsequent chargesheet show the alleged bribe amount of Rs 27.9 crore was routed by group firms of Shriram Ventures Ltd to Muthammal Estates Private Ltd, an alleged shell firm whose directors are Vaithilingam’s sons and the former minister’s brother-in-law. This amount was used to buy two land parcels covering 1.91 lakh square feet in Pappakurichi village in Tiruchirapalli district, the agency alleged.
ED has attached the properties, stating that they were directly derived from proceeds of crime.
Both DVAC and ED probes have pinpointed transactions to allege that the bribe was sent from Bharat Coal Chemicals Ltd, a subsidiary company of Shriram Ventures Ltd, a group company of Shriram Properties and Infrastructure Pvt Ltd. The bribes were paid from January 28, 2016 to February 4, 2016 through RTGS transactions, ED has found.
ED’s chargesheet also says that this amount was corruption money which was funnelled through 36 non-existent scrap vendors into Bharat Coal Chemicals’s account and then transferred to Muthammal Estates as a bribe.
The bribe was allegedly paid by Shriram Properties to secure CMDA’s approval for construction of 1,453 buildings on a 58-acre plot on GST road in Perungalathur, a suburb 30 km south of Chennai.
The plan was submitted by the private firm on December 2, 2013 for which approval was given more than 26 months later, on February 24, 2016.
The ED chargesheet names Shriram Properties and Infrastructure Ltd, its former director KR Ramesh and the firm’s then Managing Director Malayappan Murali.
An ED investigator said that the corruption case against Vaithilingam was an “open and shut” case, since there was direct irrefutable evidence of bribe payment to his sons’ firms.