ED raids BJP office staff in Chennai as party leaders sat and watched

The Tamil Nadu Bharatiya Janata party leaders were caught off guard as a team from the Enforcement Directorate raided the house of Jothi Kumar, a senior BJP party worker and BJP office staff in Chennai on September 26. While the move left other political leaders in splits, the state BJP scrambled to contain the fallout of what is perhaps the first ED raid on a BJP worker in Tamil Nadu since the Narendra Modi government came to power in 2014. Two hours after the operation began, South Chennai BJP president Kalidass and BJP Tamil Nadu Headquarters Secretary Chandran rushed to Jothi’s house and sat inside as the ED searches went on. So, who is Jothi Kumar and why did ED officials reaching his residence set alarm bells ringing in the BJP?Read further to find out.At around 7 am on Tuesday, there was a sudden buzz at Saravana street in Chennai’s T. Nagar as a team from the Enforcement Directorate mustered outside an apartment complex. As news spread, the media speculated that the only possible high-value target in the building was a well known real estate company’s owner. But surprisingly, the ED team knocked on the doors of Jothi Kumar’s residence which is located on the ground floor of the apartment building. Who is Jothi Kumar? Jothi Kumar, who hails from Viralimalai, Pudukkottai district, is a senior party worker for the BJP and has been associated with the party for around 15 years. Jothi Kumar who started as an office staff at the Tamil Nadu BJP headquarters ‘Kamalayalam’ in Chennai, now is the head of the party office staff. He also helps the office of Tamil Nadu BJP’s organising secretary Kesava Vinayagam. .BJP insiders say that Jothi Kumar also handles the party’s bank accounts and that he is an important person in the affairs at the party headquarters. “He sits on the second floor of the party office and mainly handles the party’s accounts. Communications related to the party's organisational matters are handled by him,” a source said. There was no clarity as to why the ED officials wanted to carry out searches at the residence of a BJP staff member. But the news of ED search sent shockwaves among BJP circles. When contacted, South Chennai BJP President Kalidass told TNM, “When I asked ED officials as to what they had found or why they were at Jothi Kumar’s house they didn’t reveal anything. They seem to have inspected his house but I am not aware of the details.” According to Kalidass, the ED officials first went to the residence of a person called Shanmugam, on the second floor of the same complex. “Then they came downstairs and entered Jothi Kumar’s residence,” he said and added that Shanmugham was reportedly into the real estate business. “We saw in the media that there are raids on real estate players. We have been told that the ED did not have Jothi Kumar’s name in the list. We presume that a real estate owner gave Jothi Kumar’s name in connection with some alleged transaction, and so the ED landed up at his house,” another BJP leader told TNM. A third BJP leader TNM spoke to had a slightly different version. “Party workers said that there was nothing directly related to Jothi. Seems the ED was raiding properties that belonged to a real estate company owner and they wanted to see if any documents have been kept in tenant houses. We are not very clear why the raid happened.” This BJP leader added that Jothi was with the BJP even before Kesava Vinayagam and many other BJP leaders. “He knows the in and out of the BJP in Tamil Nadu,” he said.According to a police source, they too were unable to comprehend why the ED officials raided Jothi Kumar, who is part of BJP and are in the process of gathering information. Another officer said that all the raids on September 26 were connected to people who allegedly had financial links with a real estate giant.While ED officials along with staff members from the State Bank of India (SBI) were carrying out searches at the residence of Jothi Kumar, the BJP’s South Chennai district president Kalidass arrived at the location and entered Jothi Kumar’s residence to hold talks with the ED officials..Journalists who gathered outside the apartment complex were witness to an unusual situation wherein BJP leaders were freely walking into the premises that was being raided by the ED. Tamil Nadu has witnessed some high profile ED raids in the past few months with central forces guarding the venue. The local BJP leader was seen sitting inside the residence of Jothi Kumar along with others while ED officials were still inside the residence. The ED officials were seen leaving the apartment complex quietly, perhaps after realising that their ‘target’ was part of the BJP. DMK Rajya Sabha member and Senior Counsel N R Elango told TNM this incident vidicates and supports DMK stand that ED is used for political motives. “We have been saying that these agencies target the opposition parties by conducting searches in the night, keeping a person confined for 24 hours, and arresting people at mid-night. For all the statements that we have made so far, this one raid by the ED is a corroborating circumstance. The ED is not acting as an independent institution. From this you can infer that they can do anything with opposition parties and they can go slow or they allow anyone to walk free if they belong to BJP or parties which are in alliance with the BJP,” he added. NR Elango further questioned the double standards of the central agencies when members of the opposition parties were raided, “They deploy CRPF and central forces. Senthil Balaji was confined for 24 hours, he was not even allowed to meet anyone. He was not even offered food or medicine,” he said.

ED raids BJP office staff in Chennai as party leaders sat and watched

Related Stories