Raids, Charges and Countercharges
In a statement on Saturday, Palaniswami said his party Arni MLA Sevur S Ramchandran and former Usilampatti MLA Neethipathi were being unfairly targeted by the DVAC and that it would not shake the party which would face the charges legally and alleged that the ED raids on TASMAC official had given Stalin the jitters
Chennai: AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami hit out at Chief Minister M K Stalin for not telling the truth behind the ongoing raids conducted by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) sleuths at the residence of the managing director of TASMAC, S Visakan, and other premises and accused him of unleashing the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) against his party members out of frustration.
In a statement on Saturday, Palaniswami said his party Arni MLA Sevur S Ramchandran and former Usilampatti MLA Neethipathi were being unfairly targeted by the DVAC and that it would not shake the party which would face the charges legally and alleged that the ED raids on TASMAC official had given Stalin the jitters.
State Prohibition Minister S Muthusamy said the ED that had filed cases based on the alleged corruption in the TASMAC during the AIADMK regime conducted raids but could not find anything. So, the ED spun a fantastic story about Rs 1000 crore corruption in TASMAC and to justify that charge was harassing its employees.
Muthusamy said that the State government would stand by its employees as the ED had violated norms set by the Supreme Court in carrying out the raids that had yielded nothing in the last two days. The raids were nothing by a political vendetta, he said and expressed his protest on behalf of the State government.
PMK president Anbumani Ramadoss said that the case against TASMAC should be handed over to the CBI for investigation. Since there were many charges of corruption in TASMAC, only the CBI could investigate them and bring out the truth, he said.
If there had been no corruption in the TASMAC, the State government should face the raids boldly and not try to stall them through court cases, he said and added that there was a bid to cover up everything by disproving the 40 cases registered against it.
Meanwhile DMK organization secretary R S Bharathi criticized Palaniswami for his attacks on the DMK government and alleged that he was doing it to save his Delhi bosses, who had not released funds to the State to the tune of Rs 617 crore under the Right to Education Act.
Palaniswamy was unable to question the Union Government for holding back funds to the State but was finding fault with the State government, he said.