Chennai: DMK minister Okay Ponmudi who was questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) officers until 3am on Tuesday, was summoned once more the identical night.

ED began raiding Ponmudi, Tamil Nadu’s higher education minister and his son Gautham Sigamani, a parliamentarian, on June 17 at seven locations including Chennai. On Tuesday, the ED said that the searches revealed incriminating documents, ₹81.7 lakh in cash and British pounds. “ ₹13 lakh was seized and fixed deposits of ₹ 41.9 crore have been freezed,” the ED mentioned.

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The federal company mentioned that its probe on this case revolves round an “alleged issuance of red sand mining licences at five locations illegally by Ponmudy, who was the minister for mines” between 2007 and 2011.

The ED has mentioned that Ponmudi had issued unlawful licenses for pink sand mining to his son, family and a few benami holders, and that an enormous quantity of hawala funds generated from this mining enterprise was used to buy corporations overseas. “”The proceeds obtained from unlawful mining had been deposited in benami accounts and had been layered via a number of transactions and accounts,” the company mentioned.

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Two abroad entities — PT Excel Mengindo in Indonesia and Universal Business Ventures FZE within the UAE — had been acquired, the ED mentioned. The Indonesian firm was proven to have been bought for a nominal quantity of ₹41.57 lakh and it was later bought for over ₹100 crore in 2022. “It is suspected that a huge amount of cash was transferred through hawala and infused in purchase of these overseas entities,” ED mentioned.

After the ED arrested minister V Senthil Balaji, Ponmudi is the second minister within the DMK cupboard to be questioned. Tamil Nadu chief minister M Okay Stalin who was attending the opposition assembly in Bengaluru spoke to Ponmudy over cellphone on June 18 and warranted him that the ruling social gathering will stand by him. “The chief minister told Ponmudy that the party will support him morally, politically and legally to oppose and break the political vendetta of the Union BJP government,” an announcement from the federal government learn.