New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on March 6 carried out searches at over 25 locations in Tamil Nadu in connection with a money laundering case linked to alleged irregularities in Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation Ltd (TASMAC), a Government entity that runs liquor shops in Tamil Nadu.
The search operation by the central agency covered the office premises of TASMAC in Chennai, along with premises of the distilleries and breweries which supply liquor to the state-run TASMAC.
Sources say that during the three day long searches at the TASMAC office in Chennai, the agency copied procurement and sales data of the entity starting 2021. The agency also accessed details pertaining to transport and bar license tenders for the same period.
Sources added that the officials also recorded the statement of IAS officer S. Visakan, who is the managing director of TASMAC.
While Senthil Balaji, who currently holds the Excise and Prohibition portfolio in the Tamil Nadu Cabinet was not searched by the agency, his known associates in his hometown were. Balaji, who was arrested by the ED in a different case, secured bail only in September 2024 after spending over 15 months in jail.
In a statement dated March 13, ED stated that during searches, the agency has found evidence of alleged manipulation in TASMAC’s transport tender allocations, allocation of bar license tenders and collusion between distillery companies and TASMAC officials.
The agency has also alleged that distillery companies inflated expenses and fabricated bogus purchases through bottle making companies and siphoned off over Rs 1,000 crore.
While the central agency has not made public the details of the predicate offence which was taken into cognisance by the agency for initiating a money laundering case, sources say, the agency relied on the multiple FIRs registered by Tamil Nadu Anti-Corruption and Vigilance wing.
Sources in the ED said that they registered ECIR (equivalent to FIR) in this case some time ago. After thorough preliminary investigation, the agency carried out searches, across the state, targeting entities linked to TASMAC.
It is learnt that upon completion of searches, the agency has issued summons to the executives of the distilleries covered in the search operation to join the investigation.
As ED is working to build the case, sources say that the M.K. Stalin government is also preparing to take the case head on legally. The ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagham (DMK) has called ED’s action “politically motivated”, and is planning to move courts against ED’s searches at TASMAC premises.
According to state officials, there was no case for ED to conduct searches at the head office of TASMAC as underlying predicate offences have no links to the higher officials of TASMAC.
Opposition parties in Tamil Nadu, including the Bharatiya Janata Party, have likened the TASMAC case to Delhi liquor policy case where former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal was arrested by ED.
