Reacting to the Enforcement Directorate’s raids against his cabinet colleague K Ponmudi, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Monday, July 17 said that the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) does not fear the raids. He said that the raids were a “ploy” to divert the attention from the ongoing opposition parties meeting in Bengaluru. Earlier in the morning, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted raids at Tamil Nadu Higher Education Minister K Ponmudi’s residence in Villupuram.
Condemning the raids, the Chief Minister alleged that the ED is conducting the raids based on false cases registered during former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s regime. “During the ten years of the AIADMK [All India Anna Dravdia Munnetra Kazhagam], no action was taken in this case,” he said, adding that Minister Ponmudi will face the ED investigation legally.
Stalin alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is trying to divert the opposition parties’ meeting by carrying out the raids. “The BJP which used this strategy in northern states, is now using it in Tamil Nadu. The ED raid is a ploy to distract from the intention of the opposition parties’ meeting.”
Earlier, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge also condemned the ED raids against Minister Ponmudi and alleged that this was a tactic used by the BJP to intimidate and divide the opposition. He said, “This has become Modi Govt's predictable script in order to intimidate and divide the opposition. Surprisingly, BJP has suddenly woken up to the need of putting together an alliance of ideologically opposed parties.” The senior Congress leader also urged like-minded opposition parties to unite against the “vendetta politics” of the union government.
The reason for the ED raids against the Minister remains unclear. In 2020, Ponmudi’s son Gautham Sigamani came under the ED scanner after the investigating agency attached property worth Rs 8.6 crore belonging to him. Gautham, who is an MP representing Kallakurichi constituency, was accused of illegal acquisition and non-repatriation of foreign exchange earned abroad.
