ED Summons Ponmudi, Son to Appear on Tuesday Evening in Money Laundering Case

The Minister for Higher Education of Tamil Nadu K.

After an investigation almost overnight by the ED officials, both Ponmudi and his son MP Gautham Sigamani were allowed to go home at around 3.30 am today and were asked to appear before the ED officials at 4 pm today for further enquiry, DMK spokesperson and Advocate A Saravanan He said.

He claimed that the minister “cooperated well” with the central apparatus and questioned the need to put a 72-year-old minister through a night ordeal just to get a permit. “Nothing would have happened if the ED had told him to come in the morning to get the statement,” he said.

The raids took place at the headquarters of Ponmudi and his son in Chennai, the state capital, and at the minister’s stronghold in Vyupuram.

The ruling DMK called the action a “political vendetta”. The emergency teams were escorted by armed members of the Central Reserve Police Force and confiscated some documents.

The minister is an MLA from the Tirukkoyilur assembly seat in Villupuram district while his 49-year-old son Sigamani is a Member of Parliament representing the Kallakurichi seat.

Seeking to see if the Central Agency issued a press release on the forfeiture, Saravanan told reporters here, “No unaccounted for cash or any incriminating documents have been confiscated from the minister as alleged.”

What is the logic of investigating a case 13 years after it was registered? This is nothing but a political vendetta by the BJP government because Ponmudi took office of Governor RN Ravi on the new education policy, appointment of vice-chancellors and other major issues.”

Tamil Nadu BJP vice-president Narayanan Tirupati claimed that his fellow minister Senthil Balaji was not arrested, because Ponmudi had cooperated.

(This story was not edited by the News18 staff and was published from a syndicated news agency feed – PTI)