ED raids Ex-AIADMK Minister’s residence

Pudukottai (Tamil Nadu), Mar 21  The Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials on Thursday conducted searches at the residence of senior AIADMK leader and former Minister C.Vijayabaskar at Illuppur in Pudukottai district and a Chennai-based real estate group in separate money laundering cases.
Official sources said around 25 locations were searched by the ED officials in connection with two separate cases.
Vijayabaskar, who held the Health portfolio from 2011 to 2021 during the AIADMK regime was facing the disproportionate assets case booked by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) police in 2022 and was also implicated in a ‘gutkha scam’ by the CBI.
After the DVAC filed an FIR against. Vijayabaskar in the disproportionate case, the ED officials stepped in to investigate the money laundering angle in the case.
His residences in Chennai, stone crushers and quarries in Pudukottai district, and many other properties and those of his relatives were subjected to searches by Income Tax officials in 2017.
Similarly, the properties and locations associated with the real estate company G Square in and around Chennai were also being searched for potential violations of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the sources added.
Vijayabaskar was the first senior AIADMK leader to be raided by the Central agency after the AIADMK severed ties with the BJP last September.