The Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption of Tamil Nadu announced early on Tuesday it had registered a case against S.P. Velumani, who was local administration minister in the previous AIADMK government.
The DVAC said it booked Velumani and other persons for holding assets worth Rs 58.93 crore disproportionate to known sources of income. The figure worked out to 3,928 per cent of Velumani’s total income.
The DVAC began raids in more than 45 places on Tuesday in connection with the disproportionate assets case against Velumani.
“Some of the places searched are houses of S.P. Velumani, his benami Chandrasekar, his sister, mother and friends’ houses… former MLA Ettimadai Shanmugam, residences of additional superintendent of Police Anitha, additional superintendent Shanmugam, AVR Jewellery, inspector Chandrakantha, Special Branch inspector Loganathan, retired RD E.E. Varadharaja Perumal and his jewellery, RD S.E. Saravanakumar,” a source close to DVAC said.
The DVAC alleged Velumani had visited Maldives, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and UK when he was a minister, while relatives had also visited several countries. The DVAC suspects he and his relatives had acquired assets in these countries and inquiry is on.
DVAC also stated “Velumani stayed in 5 countries for 32 days and his family members travelled to 9 countries and stayed for 130 days.”
(With inputs from Lakshmi Subramanian)