The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday issued summons to DMK MP from Vellore, Kathir Anand, in connection with a 2019 case pertaining to seizure of Rs.11.48 crores from properties linked to the MP. The summons have been sent, according to highly placed sources in the central agency, asking him to appear before the authorities on Friday.
Kathir Anand is the son of DMK general secretary and Water Resources Minister DuraiMurugan.
The summons to Kathir Anand has come at a time when ED is probing the illegal sand mining case. Reportedly, the ED has also summoned Vellore district collector P. Kumaravel in connection with the sand mining scam. The central agency has been investigating the crucial links in the illegal sand mining scam case which could lead to Anand’s father and minister DuraiMurugan.
DuraiMurugan is one of the DMK veterans and a senior minister in M.K. Stalin’s cabinet.
The ED has been carrying out an elaborate investigation in the sand mining case and has conducted searches in more than 35 locations across the state and also interrogated the Chief Engineer of Tamil Nadu Water Resources Department Muthaiah.
The agency had also recorded the statements of Muthaiah and four other senior officials of the water resources department after several hours of grilling. The agency had conducted searches on three leading businessmen – K. Rathinam, S. Ramachandran and Karikalan- who are into sand mining business and had recovered incriminating documents, allegedly linked to the water resources ministry.
The agency had also assessed the extent of sand mining across Tamil Nadu by seeking opinion from esters in IIT and ISRO. During the probe, ED seized several crores of money and gold.
Though Anand has now been summoned with regard to the 2019 case, based on the income tax seizures then, the agency is likely to question him with regard to his father and sand mining, sources say.
In fact in 2019, Rs. 11.48 crore was seized from the places linked to Anand, when Income Tax conducted searches just before the Lok Sabha elections. The election to Vellore was countermanded, as Anand’s aide ‘Poonjolai’ Srinivasan admitted that the money seized was kept for distribution to voters. Based on the seizures and Income Tax investigation in 2019, a FIR was registered in the Katpadi police station for filing a false affidavit and for bribery.
It was only a few hours before ED’s summons to Anand, a video from Gudiyatham Kumaran, one of the DMK functionaries from Anand’s constituency had gone viral. Kumaran in the video had alleged that DuraiMurugan and his son have looted more than Rs. 60,000 crore and the party is crumbling because of corruption. Kumaran has however been suspended from the party.