New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate conducted raids at the residence of former AIADMK minister C Vijayabaskar, who is under scanner for his alleged role in a money laundering case. Besides his residence in Tamil Nadu's Pudukkottai, sleuths also raided locations of a Chennai-based real estate group.
About 25 premises are being covered by the central agency as part of the two cases, the sources said. Vijayabaskar, a former health minister, is an AIADMK strongman from Pudukottai in Tamil Nadu. The searches against him are based on a state vigilance (DVAC) investigation of 2022 linked to an alleged case of possession of disproportionate assets, they said.
Similarly, the ED sleuths also conducted searches at places related to the real estate firm G-Square in Chennai. The riads are underway in places including Mylapore, Alwarpet, East Coast Road, Adyar, Neelangarai, and Anna Nagar, sources said.
Last year, the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) filed chargesheets against former Health Minister Bhaskar and former Higher Education Minister KP Anbalagan in two separate cases of disproportionate assets.
During the period, a 210-page chargesheet was filed by an DVC unit in Padukottal against Bhaskar and his wife over a year and half after the case was registered against them.
The DVAC had alleged that the former minister and his wife amassed a wealth of Rs 35.79 crore, disproportionate to their known sources of income, during the period between April 1, 2016 and March 31, 2021, when Vijaya Bhaskar served as a minister in the previous AIADMK government.
He was also earlier booked by the CBI in a 'gutkha scam.' The premises linked to real estate group Gsquare and linked entities in and around Chennai city are also being searched as part of an investigation under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the sources said.
